Sensitivity analysis for atmospheric chemistry models via automatic differentiation

Automatic differentiation techniques are introduced and applied in the sensitivity analysis of atmospheric chemistry studies. Specifically, ADIFOR software is used to calculate the sensitivity of ozone with respect to all initial concentrations (of 84 species) and all reaction rate constants (178 chemical reactions, for six different chemical regimes, varying from the marine boundary layer to continental boundary layers with and without isoprene, to the upper troposphere, including plumes with and without non-methane hydrocarbons. Numerical aspects of the application of ADIFOR are also presented. Automatic differentiation is shown to be a powerful tool for the application of sensitivity analysis to atmospheric chemistry problems.