Abstract
GLOBAL surface-based measurements of atmospheric methane and carbon monoxide concentrations revealed a marked and unex-pected decrease in their growth rates in 1991 and 1992, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere1,2. Changes in emissions are unlikely to be the sole reason for the sudden reduction in the concentrations of these source gases2,3. The unprecedentedly large depletion of stratospheric ozone observed in 1991 and 1992 (ref. 4) may have contributed to the sharp decrease in the growth rates of both CH4 and CO by exposing the troposphere to more ultraviolet radiation. This would have resulted in increased concentrations of the hydroxyl radical, OH·, which is the major atmospheric sink for both CH4 and CO. Here we present two-dimensional model simulations which allow us to assess the significance of the link between stra-tospheric ozone depletion and the observed trends of CH4 and CO. We find that the low values in stratospheric ozone concentration can account for almost half of the 1992 decrease in the CH4 and CO growth rates.
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Bekki, S., Law, K. & Pyle, J. Effect of ozone depletion on atmospheric CH4 and CO concentrations. Nature 371, 595–597 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/371595a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/371595a0
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