Strong sensitivity of the isotopic composition of methane to the plausible range of tropospheric chlorine

Strode, Sarah A.; Wang, James S.; Manyin, Michael; Duncan, Bryan; Hossaini, Ryan; Keller, Christoph A.; Michel, Sylvia E.; White, James W. C.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8405-2020

Articles | Volume 20, issue 14

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8405-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8405-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 14

Research article

|

17 Jul 2020

Research article |

| 17 Jul 2020

Strong sensitivity of the isotopic composition of methane to the plausible range of tropospheric chlorine

Sarah A. Strode, James S. Wang, Michael Manyin, Bryan Duncan, Ryan Hossaini, Christoph A. Keller, Sylvia E. Michel, and James W. C. White

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Final revised paper (published on 17 Jul 2020)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 22 Nov 2019)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

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

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- Supplement

SC1: 'Suggestions and improvements', Tonatiuh Guillermo Nuñez Ramirez, 19 Dec 2019
- AC1: 'Response to Short Comment', Sarah Strode, 15 Apr 2020
RC1: 'Referee comments', Anonymous Referee #1, 20 Jan 2020
- AC2: 'Response to Reviewer Comments', Sarah Strode, 15 Apr 2020
RC2: 'Reviewer comments', Anonymous Referee #2, 05 Feb 2020
- AC2: 'Response to Reviewer Comments', Sarah Strode, 15 Apr 2020

Peer-review completion

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

AR by Sarah Strode on behalf of the Authors (24 Apr 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (08 May 2020) by Patrick Jöckel

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (22 May 2020)

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (29 May 2020)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (29 May 2020) by Patrick Jöckel

AR by Sarah Strode on behalf of the Authors (05 Jun 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (19 Jun 2020) by Patrick Jöckel

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Short summary

The ¹³C : ¹²C isotopic ratio in methane (CH₄) provides information about CH₄ sources, but loss of CH₄ by reaction with OH and chlorine (Cl) also affects this ratio. Tropospheric Cl provides a small and uncertain sink for CH₄ but has a large effect on its isotopic ratio. We use the GEOS model with several different Cl fields to test the sensitivity of methane's isotopic composition to tropospheric Cl. Cl affects the global mean, hemispheric gradient, and seasonal cycle of the isotopic ratio.