Dependence of ozone production on NO and hydrocarbons in the troposphere

An expression for the production rate of 03, P(O 3), is derived based on a radical budget equation applicable to low and high NOx conditions. Differentiation of this equation with respect to NO or hydrocarbons (HC) gives an approximate analytic formula in which the relative sensitivity of P(O3) to changes in NO or HC depends only on the fraction of radicals which are removed by reactions with NOx. This formula is tested by comparison with results from a photochemical calculation driven by trace gas observations from the 1995 Southern Oxidants Study (SOS) campaign in Nashville, Tennessee.