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We find that typical summer-time lightning activity across the U.S. Mountain West States (MWS) injects NO<jats:sub>x<\/jats:sub>emissions comparable to those from anthropogenic sources into the troposphere over the region. Comparison of two model simulation cases with and without lightning NO<jats:sub>x<\/jats:sub>emissions show that significant amount of ground-level O<jats:sub>3<\/jats:sub>in the MWS during the summer can be attributed to the lightning NO<jats:sub>X<\/jats:sub>emissions. The simulated surface-level O<jats:sub>3<\/jats:sub>from a model configuration incorporating lightning NO<jats:sub>x<\/jats:sub>emissions showed better agreement with the observed values than the model configuration without lightning NO<jats:sub>x<\/jats:sub>emissions. The time periods of significant reduction in bias in simulated O<jats:sub>3<\/jats:sub>between these two cases strongly correlate with the time periods when lightning activity occurred in the region. The inclusion of lightning NO<jats:sub>x<\/jats:sub>increased daily maximum 8\u2009h O<jats:sub>3<\/jats:sub>by up to 17\u2009ppb and improved model performance relative to measured surface O<jats:sub>3<\/jats:sub>mixing ratios in the MWS region. Analysis of model results in conjunction with lidar measurements at Boulder, Colorado during July 2014 corroborated similar impacts of lightning NO<jats:sub>x<\/jats:sub>emissions on O<jats:sub>3<\/jats:sub>air quality. The magnitude of lightning NO<jats:sub>x<\/jats:sub>emissions estimated for other summers is comparable to the 2011 estimates suggesting that summertime surface-level O<jats:sub>3<\/jats:sub>levels in the MWS region could be significantly influenced by lightning NO<jats:sub>x<\/jats:sub>.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s41612-020-0108-2","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,30]],"date-time":"2020-01-30T11:02:57Z","timestamp":1580382177000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":27,"title":["Significant ground-level ozone attributed to lightning-induced nitrogen oxides during summertime over the Mountain West States"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"3","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4952-1021","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Daiwen","family":"Kang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8927-5876","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rohit","family":"Mathur","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"George A.","family":"Pouliot","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7241-9981","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Robert C.","family":"Gilliam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7968-370X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"David C.","family":"Wong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"108_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"672","DOI":"10.1080\/08940630.1989.10466554","volume":"39","author":"M Lippmann","year":"1989","unstructured":"Lippmann, M. 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