Article (Scientific journals)
The recent increase of atmospheric methane from 10 years of ground-based NDACC FTIR observations since 2005
Bader, Whitney; Bovy, Benoît; Conway, Stephanie et al.
2017In Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
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Abstract :
[en] Changes of atmospheric methane total columns (CH4/ since 2005 have been evaluated using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) solar observations carried out at 10 ground-based sites, affiliated to the Network for Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC). From this, we find an increase of atmospheric methane total columns of 0.31±0.03 %/year (2-sigma level of uncertainty) for the 2005–2014 period. Comparisons with in situ methane measurements at both local and global scales show good 10 agreement. We used the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model tagged simulation, which accounts for the contribution of each emission source and one sink in the total methane, simulated over 2005–2012. After regridding according to NDACC vertical layering using a conservative 15 regridding scheme and smoothing by convolving with respective FTIR seasonal averaging kernels, the GEOS-Chem simulation shows an increase of atmospheric methane total columns of 0.35±0.03 %/year between 2005 and 2012, which is in agreement with NDACC measurements over the same time period (0.30±0.04 %/year, averaged over 10 stations). Analysis of the GEOS-Chem-tagged simulation allows us to quantify the contribution of each tracer to the global methane change since 2005. We find that natural sources such as wetlands and biomass burning contribute to the interannual variability of methane. However, anthropogenic emissions, such as coal mining, and gas and oil transport and exploration, which are mainly emitted in the Northern Hemisphere and act as secondary contributors to the global budget of methane, have played a major role in the increase of atmospheric methane observed since 2005. Based on the GEOS-Chem-tagged simulation, we discuss possible cause(s) for the increase of methane since 2005, which is still unexplained.
Disciplines :
Earth sciences & physical geography
Author, co-author :
Bader, Whitney ;  Université de Liège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Groupe infra-rouge de phys. atmosph. et solaire (GIRPAS)
Bovy, Benoît ;  Université de Liège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO)
Conway, Stephanie
Strong, Kimberly
Smale, Dan
Turner, Alexander J.
Blumenstock, Thomas
Boone, Chris
Coulon, Ancelin
Garcia, Omaira
Griffith, David W. T.
Hase, Franck
Haussmann, Petra
Jones, Nicholas
Krummel, Paul
Murata
Morino, Isamu
Nakajima, Hideaki
O'Doherty, Simon
Paton-Walsh, Clare
Robinson, John
Sandrin, Rodrigue
Schneider, Matthias
Servais, Christian ;  Université de Liège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Groupe infra-rouge de phys. atmosph. et solaire (GIRPAS)
Sussmann, Ralf
Mahieu, Emmanuel  ;  Université de Liège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Groupe infra-rouge de phys. atmosph. et solaire (GIRPAS)
More authors (16 more) Less
Language :
English
Title :
The recent increase of atmospheric methane from 10 years of ground-based NDACC FTIR observations since 2005
Alternative titles :
[fr] La récente augmentation du méthane vu depuis 10 ans d'observations FTIR au sol NDACC depuis 2005.
Publication date :
February 2017
Journal title :
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
ISSN :
1680-7316
eISSN :
1680-7324
Publisher :
Copernicus Publications, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany
Special issue title :
Twenty-five years of operations of the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) (AMT/ACP/ESSD inter-journal SI)
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
European Projects :
H2020 - 704951 - ISOMET - Atmospheric content of the most abundant of 12CH4 isotopologues from ground-based and satellite infrared solar observations and development of a methane isotopic GEOS-Chem module.
Funders :
European Commission - Research Executive Agency - Marie Slkodowska Curie Actions - Individual Fellowships
CE - Commission Européenne [BE]
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