rationalskepticism.org

Florian wrote:

lucek wrote::whistle:

In the atmosphere it is short lived and spatially variable, since it combines with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and ozone.

Nope, this sentence is clearly wrong! Carbon monoxyde does not combine with oxygen to form ozone. What's eventually happening is a sequence of reaction starting from CO, and leading to the formation of free oxygen as an intermediate product. This free oxygen can combine with O2 to form ozone. And this sequence of reaction is more likely happening in the troposphere than the stratosphere anyway.

OK, I found the correct sequence in Reeves et al (2002) JGR 107,D23, 4707, doi:10.1029/2002JD002415.

This reaction happens in the troposphere as I suspected and the funny part is that the initial reactant is stratospheric ozone (!).

So we have in the stratosphere:
O3 + hv -> O(1D) + O2
O(1D) + H2O -> 2 OH (hydroxyl radical)

then OH radicals sink in the troposphere and the sequence can continue:
OH + CO -> HO2 + CO2
HO2 + NO -> NO2 + OH (regeneration of the hydroxyl radical at this step)
NO2 + hv -> O(3P) + NO (yet another photoreaction)
and finally O(3P) + O2 -> O3

So CO combines with hydroxyl radicals, not with O2.

Weaver wrote:So no admitting you were wrong, or apologizing?

Back to your hole!