remote sensing; troposphere; atmospheric chemistry; methane; trend; greenhouse gas
Abstract :
[en] We report average tropospheric CH4 volume mixing ratios retrieved from a 27 year time series of high spectral resolution infrared solar absorption measurements recorded between May 1977 and July 2004 at the US National Solar Observatory station on Kitt Peak (31.9 degrees N, 111.6 degrees W, 2.09 km altitude) and their comparison with surface in situ sampling measurements recorded between 1983 and 2004 at the Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory (CMDL) station at Niwot Ridge, Colorado (40.0 degrees N, 105.5 degrees W, 3013 m altitude). The two measurement sets therefore overlap for the 1983-2004 time period. An average tropospheric volume mixing ratios of 1814 +/- 48 ppbv (1 ppbv = 10(-9) per unit volume) has been derived from the solar absorption time series with a best-fit increase rate trend equal to 8.26 +/- 2.20 ppbv yr(-1) in 1983 decreasing to 1.94 +/- 3.69 ppbv yr(-1) in 2003. The CMDL measurements also show a continuous long-term CH4 volume mixing ratio rise, with subsequent slowing down. A mean ratio of the retrieved average tropospheric volume mixing ratio to the CMDL volume mixing ratio for the overlapping time period of 1.038 +/- 0.034 indicates agreement between both data sets within the quantified experimental errors. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Disciplines :
Physics
Author, co-author :
Rinsland, Curtis P.
Goldman, Aaron
Elkins, James W.
Chiou, Linda S.
Hannigan, James W.
Wood, Stephen W.
Mahieu, Emmanuel ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Groupe infra-rouge de phys. atmosph. et solaire (GIRPAS)
Zander, Rodolphe ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Services généraux (Faculté des sciences) > Relations académiques et scientifiques (Sciences)
Language :
English
Title :
Long-term trend of CH4 at northern mid-latitudes: Comparison between ground-based infrared solar and surface sampling measurements
Publication date :
February 2006
Journal title :
Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer
ISSN :
0022-4073
Publisher :
Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd, Oxford, United Kingdom
M.J. Kurylo Network for the detection of stratospheric change Proc Soc Photo Opt Instrum Eng 1491 1991 169-174
Kurylo MJ, Zander RJ. The NDSC-Its Status after 10 years of operation. Proceedings of the XIX quadrennial ozone symposium, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan, 3-8 July 2000. p. 167-8.
D.M. Eldering L.P. Steele R.J. Francey R.L. Langenfields Atmospheric methane between 1000 AD and present: Evidence of anthropogenic emissions and climate variability J Geophys Res 103 1998 15,979-15,993
C.P. Rinsland J.S. Levine T. Miles Concentration of methane in the troposphere deduced from 1951 infrared solar spectra Nature 318 1985 245-249
Zander R, Mahieu E, Servais C, Roland G, Duchatelet P, Demoulin P, et al. Potential of the NDSC in support of the Kyoto Protocol: Examples from the station Jungfraujoch, Switzerland. In: Van Ham J, Maede APM, Guicherit R, Williams-Jacobse JGFM, editors. Proceedings of the third international symposium on non- CO 2 greenhouse gases: Scientific understand, control options and policy aspects, Maastricht, The Netherlands, January 21-23, 2002. Millspress-Rotterdam Publishers, 2002. p. 305-10, ISBN 90 77017-70-4.
J.M. Hanson M. Sato R. Ruedy A. Lacis V. Oinas Global warming in the twenty-first century: An alternative scenario Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 97 2000 9875-9890
A.M. Fiore D.J. Jacob H. Liu R.M. Yantosca T.D. Fairlie Q. Li Variability in surface ozone background over the United States: implications for air quality policy J Geophys Res 108 D24 2003 4787
H.A. Michelson F.W. Irion G.L. Manney G.C. Toon M.R. Gunson Features and trends in atmospheric trace molecule spectroscopy (ATMOS) version 3 stratospheric water vapor and methane measurements J Geophys Res 105 2000 22713-22724
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2001, Climate Change 2001: The scientific basis, Geneva (available at http://www.grida.no/ climate/ipcc/wgl/index.html).
Y. Xiao D.J. Jacob J.S. Wang J.A. Logan P.I. Palmer P. et al. Suntharalingham Constraints on Asian and European sources of methane from CH4-C2H6-CO correlations in Asian outflow J Geophys Res 109 2004 D15S16 10.1029/2003JD004475
Brault JW. Solar Fourier transform spectroscopy. In: Godoli G, Noci G, Reghin A, editors. Proceedings of the JOSO workshop, future solar optical observations, needs and constraints, Firenze, Italy, Baccini and Chiappi, Florence, Italy, 1978. p. 32-52.
C.P. Rinsland N.B. Jones B.J. Connor J.A. Logan N.S. Pougatchev A. Goldman et al. Northern and southern hemisphere ground-based infrared spectroscopic measurements of tropospheric carbon monoxide and ethane J Geophys Res 103 1998 28197-28218
N.S. Pougatchev B.J. Connor C.P. Rinsland Infrared measurements of the ozone vertical distribution above Kitt Peak J Geophys Res 100 1995 16,689-16,697
A. Parrish B.J. Connor J.J. Tsou I.S. McDermid W.G. Chu Ground-based microwave monitoring of stratospheric ozone J Geophys Res 97 1992 2541-2546
C.D. Rodgers Characterization and error analysis of profiles retrieved from remote sounding measurements J Geophys Res 95 1990 5587-5595
A. Goldman C. Paton-Walsch W. Bell G.C. Toon J.F. Blavier B. Sen et al. NDSC FTIR intercomparison at table mountain facility, November 1996 J Geophys Res 104 1999 30481-30503
F. Hase J.W. Hannigan M.T. Coffey A. Goldman A. Höpfner N.B. Jones et al. Intercomparison of retrieval codes used for the analysis of high-resolution, ground-based FTIR measurements JQSRT 87 2004 25-52
S.R. Drayson Rapid computation of the Voigt function JQSRT 16 1976 611-614
Hase F, Toon GC, Demoulin P, Goldman A, Hannigan JW, Rinsland CP, et al. Model of solar transmission for SFIT2 and PROFFIT. NDSC infrared working group meeting, Queenstown, New Zealand, November 9-11, 2004.
A. Meier A. Goldman P.S. Manning T.M. Stephen C.P. Rinsland N.B. Jones et al. Improvements to air mass calculations from ground-based infrared measurements JQSRT 83 2004 109-115
Toon GC. JPL Pasadena, private communication, 2001. See also http://mark4sun.jpl.nasa.gov/m4-balloon.html.
US Standard Atmosphere 1976. NOAA-NASA-US Air Force. Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1976.
Rothman LS, Jacquemart D, Barbe A, Benner DC, Birk M, Brown LR, et al. The HITRAN 2004 molecular spectroscopic database. JQSRT 2005;96:139-204.
C.P. Rinsland A. Goldman E. Mahieu R. Zander J. Notholt R.B. Jones et al. Ground-based infrared spectroscopic measurements of carbonyl sulfide: Free tropospheric trends from a 24-year time series of solar absorption measurements J Geophys Res 107 2002 101029/2002JD0002522
N.S. Pougatchev N.B. Jones B.J. Connor C.P. Rinsland E. Becker M.T. Coffey et al. Ground-based infrared solar spectroscopic measurements of carbon monoxide during 1994 measurement of air pollution from space flights J Geophys Res 103 1998 19317-19325
E.J. Dlugokencky L.P. Steele P.M. Lang K.A. Masarie The growth rate and distribution of atmospheric methane J Geophys Res 99 1994 17021-17043
E.J. Dlugokencky K.A. Masaire P.M. Lang P.P. Tans L.P. Steele E.D. Nisbet A dramatic decrease in the growth rate of atmospheric methane in the northern hemisphere during 1992 Geophys Res Lett 21 1994 45-48
R.A. Washenfelder P.O. Wennberg G.C. Toon Tropospheric methane retrieved from ground-based near-IR solar absorption spectra Geophys Res Lett 30 2003 10.1029/2003GL017969
