Nitrate Photolysis in Salty Snow. Morenz, K., J., Shi, Q., Murphy, J., G., & Donaldson, D., J. The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 120(40):7902-7908, 10, 2016.
Nitrate Photolysis in Salty Snow [pdf]Paper  Nitrate Photolysis in Salty Snow [link]Website  abstract   bibtex   
Nitrate photolysis from snow can have a significant impact on the oxidative capacity of the local atmosphere, but the factors affecting the release of gas phase products are not well understood. Here, we report a systematic study of the amounts of NO, NO2, and total nitrogen oxides (NOy) emitted from illuminated snow samples as a function of both nitrate and total salt (NaCl and Instant Ocean) concentration. The results provide experimental evidence that the release of nitrogen oxides to the gas phase is directly related to the expected nitrate concentration in the brine at the surface of the snow crystals. With no added salts, steady-state release of gas phase products increases to a plateau value with increasing pre-freezing nitrate concentration; with the addition of salts, the steady-state gas phase nitrogen oxides generally decrease with increasing pre-freezing NaCl or Instant Ocean concentration. As well for these frozen mixed nitrate (25 mM) - salt (0-500 mM) solutions, there is an increase in gas ...

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