the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Measurement report: Surface exchange fluxes of HONO during the growth process of paddy fields in the Huaihe River Basin, China
Abstract. Significant amounts of nitrous acid (HONO) released from soil affect the tropospheric atmosphere, as a major precursor of hydroxyl radical. However, the scarcity of soil–atmosphere HONO exchange flux has constrained the comprehension of emission processes and reactive nitrogen budget. Herein, we performed measurements of HONO and NOx fluxes over paddy fields in the Huaihe River Basin for the first time. The entire experiment experienced various agricultural management activities, including rotary tillage, flood irrigation, fertilization, paddy cultivation and growth, and top-dressing. HONO and NO exhibited upward fluxes, while NO2 deposited to the ground, with average hourly fluxes of 0.07 ± 0.22, 0.19 ± 0.53 and -0.37 ± 0.47 nmol m-2 s-1, respectively. During paddy cultivation, the flooded environment with a higher water-filled pore space (~80 %) significantly suppressed the HONO emission, and the fertilization did not have a significant promoting impact on HONO fluxes.
During the rotary tillage, continuous peaks were observed in HONO and NO flux, which exhibited a significant correlation (R = 0.77). Moreover, a significant correlation (R = 0.60) between HONO flux and the product of J(NO2) × NO2 was also observed during the daytime. The results suggest that both soil release mechanisms from biological processes and light-driven NO2 conversion are likely active, and together influence the diurnal pattern of HONO flux. Source analysis revealed that the unknown HONO source (Punknown) exhibited a diurnal pattern with higher daytime and lower nighttime values. Sensitivity tests demonstrated that photo-enhanced NO2 conversion on the ground could effectively explain Punknown, and the nighttime HONO flux rates ranging from 0.32 ppbv h-1 to 0.79 ppbv h-1 were fully capable of explaining the nighttime Punknown. Our study emphasized the variability of HONO fluxes across various agricultural management activities, as well as the importance of heterogeneous NO2 conversion on the ground surface and soil emissions in HONO production.
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RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-2127', Anonymous Referee #1, 19 Aug 2024
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This paper reports on measured exchange fluxes of HONO (along with NO and NO2) using the aerodynamic gradient method during the growth process of paddy fields in the Huaihe River Basin, China during 2021. Maximal NO and HONO emissions were observed during rotary tillage. The measurement methods and quality control schemes were published previously and are solid. The length (1.5 month) and representativeness of this dataset in terms of agricultural practices is certainly unique and worth publishing. The manuscript is well-thought-out, and the discussion of the results is very impressive and complete, thus being highly informative and relevant because nearly all previous publications on soil HONO emissions are included. I do have some points for improvement that are listed below. My main concern is the treatment of data with chemical flux divergence. This part must be improved. The manuscript should be edited by a native English speaker. Please find below my detailed comments that should be addressed before publication:
Detailed comments:
Lines 29-30: “… affect the chemistry of the troposphere…”
Line 30: “… the scarcity of in-situ data on soil-atmosphere HONO exchange fluxes has constrained…”
Line 39: “… HONO and NO fluxes…”
Line 49: “… and soil emissions for HONO production.”
Lines 110-112: this is a repetition and was written already before. Could be deleted or rephrased.
Line 150: “… in the ambient air were…”
Line 155: Sentence is misleading. The molybdenum converter is not required for NO measurements.
Lines 160-170: What was the length and the material of the inlet lines, and what was the residence time of the air within the tubing? HONO may still adsorb on surfaces. Was the intercomparison of the two instruments made with the same inlet length/type?
Line 178: the correct name is “von Kármán constant”.
Line 290-311: In fact, if a chemical divergence is present, the fluxes cannot be calculated. Please refer to the Damköhler numbers (Da) here and rephrase the text accordingly. First you talk about upward NO2 fluxes due to chemistry and then downward NO2 fluxes due to photolysis. This must be proven with some Da numbers and a flux estimate should not exist for these conditions.
Line 332: Could it also be possible that drying of soil in the morning (occurrence of optimum WFPS) was causing the HONO emissions (related to direct emission from ammonia oxidizing bacteria)?
Line 395: Could you please double check the units in equation S10? I am surprised that the ground HONO source is very low, especially in the afternoon.
Line 430: … not only from agricultural soils in China….
Line 434: Can you mention here how much higher (factor) the HONO fluxed were during tillage compared to other conditions?
Figure 4: size should be increased.
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2127-RC1
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Measurement report: Surface exchange fluxes of HONO during the growth process of paddy fields in the Huaihe River Basin, China Fanhao Meng et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12738765
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