Atmospheric Monitoring of Volatile Organic Compounds

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a diverse group of carbon-based chemicals that readily evaporate under ambient conditions and play a central part in atmospheric chemistry. Once emitted from natural sources such as vegetation or anthropogenic activities including fossil fuel combustion and solvent use, VOCs undergo complex photochemical oxidation pathways that yield secondary pollutants like ozone and fine particulate matter. Monitoring VOCs in the atmosphere is essential for understanding air quality, assessing health impacts and informing emission control policies. Techniques span in situ sensor networks, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, and satellite remote sensing of key oxidation products such as formaldehyde. Advances in instrumental sensitivity, retrieval algorithms and chemical transport models now enable global‐ to local‐scale mapping of VOC precursors, elucidation of emission trends and attribution of long-range transport. Integrated observational and modelling approaches continue to refine our understanding of VOC lifetimes, their non-linear role in ozone formation and interactions with nitrogen oxides under varying environmental regimes.

Research from Nature Portfolio

No recent Nature Portfolio content available.

Atmospheric Monitoring of Volatile Organic Compounds publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in atmospheric monitoring of volatile organic compounds across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs): Carbon-based gases that evaporate easily and participate in atmospheric photochemistry.

Formaldehyde (HCHO): A short-lived oxidation product of many VOCs, used as a proxy for reactive VOC emissions in remote sensing.

Tropospheric Vertical Column Density (VCD): The total number of molecules of a trace gas in a column of atmosphere above a unit area.

Air Mass Factor (AMF): A correction factor relating the slant column density measured by a satellite to the vertical column density.

NOₓ-limited regime: An ozone formation regime where ozone production increases with added nitrogen oxides but is insensitive to VOC changes.

VOC-limited regime: An ozone formation regime where ozone production increases with added VOCs but is insensitive to nitrogen oxide changes.

References

1. Unexpected HCHO transnational transport: influence on the temporal and spatial distribution of HCHO in Tibet from 2013 to 2021 based on satellite. npj Climate and Atmospheric Science (2024).
2. Algorithm theoretical baseline for formaldehyde retrievals from S5P TROPOMI and from the QA4ECV project. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (2018).
3. Spatial and temporal changes of the ozone sensitivity in China based on satellite and ground-based observations. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (2021).