Nighttime radical observations and chemistry

The nitrate radical, NO(3), is photochemically unstable but is one of the most chemically important species in the nocturnal atmosphere. It is accompanied by the presence of dinitrogen pentoxide, N(2)O(5), with which it is in rapid thermal equilibrium at lower tropospheric temperatures. These two nitrogen oxides participate in numerous atmospheric chemical systems. NO(3) reactions with VOCs and organic sulphur species are important, or in some cases even dominant, oxidation pathways, impacting the budgets of these species and their degradation products. These oxidative reactions, together with the ozonolysis of alkenes, are also responsible for the nighttime production and cycling of OH and peroxy (HO(2) +…