Other Names

HCN, Acetonitrile

Definition

Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) is a colorless, volatile, and extremely poisonous chemical compound whose vapors have a bitter almond odor.
HCN main source in the troposphere is the biomass burning. It is a tropospheric source gas that enters in the stratosphere and is slowly destroyed there. HCN is not only an indicator of biomass burning events, it also acts as a tracer to observe the dynamics of the middle atmosphere. Its primary loss mechanism is reaction with the OH radical. The HCN data from Microwave Limb Sounding (Aura/MLS) are based on observations of emission from spectral lines around 117 GHz.

Applications

(1) Atmospheric Chemistry Models	(5) Tracer of Air Motions
(2) Air Quality	(6) stratosphere-troposphere exchange
(3) Monitoring of Biomass Burning	(7) Climate Change
(4) Health and Environment

GES DISC Datasets

Quick Search for 'Hydrogen Cyanide' with Mirador
Click on the corresponding 'WHOM access' links in the table below to access products containing specific parameter.

Parameter	Units	Platform /Instrument	Data
			Begin Date	End Date	WHOM Access	Doc
Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) Profiles (mixing ratios at different pressure levels), pixel resolution	vmr	Aura/MLS	2004-08-08	Current	ML2HCN.002	Y
Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) Profiles (mixing ratios at different pressure levels), global gridded	vmr	Aura/MLS	2004-08-08	Current		Y