Influences of hydroxyl radicals (OH) on top-down estimates of the global and regional methane budgets

Zhao, Yuanhong; Saunois, Marielle; Bousquet, Philippe; Lin, Xin; Berchet, Antoine; Hegglin, Michaela I.; Canadell, Josep G.; Jackson, Robert B.; Dlugokencky, Edward J.; Langenfelds, Ray L.; Ramonet, Michel; Worthy, Doug; Zheng, Bo

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9525-2020

Articles | Volume 20, issue 15

Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 9525–9546, 2020

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9525-2020

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

Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 9525–9546, 2020

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9525-2020

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

Articles | Volume 20, issue 15

Research article 13 Aug 2020

Research article | 13 Aug 2020

Influences of hydroxyl radicals (OH) on top-down estimates of the global and regional methane budgets

Yuanhong Zhao et al.

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9525-2020-supplement

Data sets

The IGAC/SPARC Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative Phase-1 (CCMI- 1) model data output M. I. Hegglin, and J.-F. Lamarque http://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/9cc6b94df0f4469d8066d69b5df879d5

Short summary

The hydroxyl radical (OH), which is the dominant sink of methane (CH₄), plays a key role in closing the global methane budget. This study quantifies how uncertainties in the hydroxyl radical can influence top-down estimates of CH₄ emissions based on 4D Bayesian inversions with different OH fields and the same surface observations. We show that uncertainties in CH₄ emissions driven by different OH fields are comparable to the uncertainties given by current bottom-up and top-down estimations.