Technical note: Comparing ozone production efficiency (OPE) of chemical mechanisms using chemical process analysis (CPA)

Abstract. Chemical mechanisms are critical to chemical transport models for air quality research and policy analysis. Several mechanisms are available and intercomparison, especially using metrics which reduce sensitivity to modeling scenario, is important for interpreting results and assessing uncertainties. Here, we investigate Ozone Production Efficiency (OPE) as a comparison metric under conditions where nitrogen oxides (NOX) are limited. OPE is the net number of ozone molecules produced per