Global distribution of methane emissions, emission trends, and OH concentrations and trends inferred from an inversion of GOSAT satellite data for 2010–2015

Maasakkers, Joannes D.; Jacob, Daniel J.; Sulprizio, Melissa P.; Scarpelli, Tia R.; Nesser, Hannah; Sheng, Jian-Xiong; Zhang, Yuzhong; Hersher, Monica; Bloom, A. Anthony; Bowman, Kevin W.; Worden, John R.; Janssens-Maenhout, Greet; Parker, Robert J.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-7859-2019

Articles | Volume 19, issue 11

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-7859-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-7859-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 11

Research article

| Highlight paper

|

12 Jun 2019

Research article | Highlight paper |

| 12 Jun 2019

Global distribution of methane emissions, emission trends, and OH concentrations and trends inferred from an inversion of GOSAT satellite data for 2010–2015

Joannes D. Maasakkers, Daniel J. Jacob, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Tia R. Scarpelli, Hannah Nesser, Jian-Xiong Sheng, Yuzhong Zhang, Monica Hersher, A. Anthony Bloom, Kevin W. Bowman, John R. Worden, Greet Janssens-Maenhout, and Robert J. Parker

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Final revised paper (published on 12 Jun 2019)
Preprint (discussion started on 18 Jan 2019)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

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

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RC1: 'Referee comment', Anonymous Referee #1, 08 Feb 2019
RC2: 'Review of Maasakkers et al.: Global distribution of methane emissions, emission trends, and OH concentrations and trends inferred from an inversion of GOSAT satellite data for 2010–2015', Anonymous Referee #2, 09 Feb 2019
AC1: 'Response to reviewers', Joannes Maasakkers, 27 Apr 2019

Peer-review completion

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

AR by Joannes Maasakkers on behalf of the Authors (01 May 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (09 May 2019) by Andreas Hofzumahaus

AR by Joannes Maasakkers on behalf of the Authors (09 May 2019) Author's response Manuscript

Short summary

We use 2010–2015 satellite observations of atmospheric methane to improve estimates of methane emissions and their trends, as well as the concentration and trend of tropospheric OH (hydroxyl radical, methane's main sink). We find overestimates of Chinese coal and Middle East oil/gas emissions in the prior estimate. The 2010–2015 growth in methane is attributed to an increase in emissions from India, China, and areas with large tropical wetlands. The contribution from OH is small in comparison.