Deriving Global OH Abundance and Atmospheric Lifetimes for Long-Lived Gases: A Search for CH₃CCl₃ Alternatives.

ABSTRACT: An accurate estimate of global hydroxyl radical (OH) abundance is important for projections of air quality, climate, and stratospheric ozone recovery. As the atmospheric mixing ratios of methyl chloroform (CH₃CCl₃) (MCF), the commonly used OH reference gas, approaches zero, it is important to find alternative approaches to infer atmospheric OH abundance and variability. The lack of global bottom-up emission inventories is the primary obstacle in choosing a MCF alternative. We illustrate that global emissions of long-lived trace gases can be inferred from their observed mixing ratio differences between the Northern Hemisphere (NH) and Southern Hemisphere (SH), given realistic estimates of their NH-SH exchange time, the emission partitioning between the two hemispheres,

SUBMITTER: Liang Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10956888 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature