Changes to the chemical state of the Northern Hemisphere atmosphere during the second half of the twentieth century

Newland, Mike J.; Martinerie, Patricia; Witrant, Emmanuel; Helmig, Detlev; Worton, David R.; Hogan, Chris; Sturges, William T.; Reeves, Claire E.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-8269-2017

Articles | Volume 17, issue 13

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-8269-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-8269-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 13

Research article

|

07 Jul 2017

Research article |

| 07 Jul 2017

Changes to the chemical state of the Northern Hemisphere atmosphere during the second half of the twentieth century

Mike J. Newland, Patricia Martinerie, Emmanuel Witrant, Detlev Helmig, David R. Worton, Chris Hogan, William T. Sturges, and Claire E. Reeves

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Final revised paper (published on 07 Jul 2017)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 30 Nov 2016)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Comments', Anonymous Referee #2, 04 Jan 2017
- AC1: 'Response to Reviewer #2', Mike Newland, 28 Feb 2017
RC2: 'Referee comments', Anonymous Referee #1, 13 Jan 2017
- AC2: 'Response to Reviewer #1', Mike Newland, 28 Feb 2017

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Mike Newland on behalf of the Authors (28 Feb 2017) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (20 Mar 2017) by Robert McLaren

AR by Mike Newland on behalf of the Authors (01 May 2017) Author's response

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (18 May 2017) by Robert McLaren

AR by Mike Newland on behalf of the Authors (26 May 2017) Manuscript

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Short summary

We report increasing levels of alkyl nitrates in the Northern Hemisphere atmosphere between 1960 and the mid-1990s. These increases are symptomatic of large-scale changes to the chemical composition of the atmosphere, particularly with regards to the amounts of short-lived, reactive species. The observed increases are likely driven by increasing levels of nitrogen oxides. These changes have direct implications for the lifetimes of climate-relevant species in the atmosphere, such as methane.