Articles | Volume 25, issue 19
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-11895-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.Stratospheric δ13CO2 observed over Japan and its governing processes
Download
- Final revised paper (published on 02 Oct 2025)
- Supplement to the final revised paper
- Preprint (discussion started on 04 Apr 2025)
- Supplement to the preprint
Interactive discussion
Status: closed
Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor
| : Report abuse
-
RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-1003', Anonymous Referee #1, 05 May 2025
- AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Satoshi Sugawara, 12 Jun 2025
-
RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-1003', Anonymous Referee #2, 08 May 2025
- AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Satoshi Sugawara, 12 Jun 2025
Peer review completion
AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload
AR by Satoshi Sugawara on behalf of the Authors (12 Jun 2025)
Author's response
Author's tracked changes
Manuscript
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (30 Jun 2025) by Gabriele Stiller
RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (07 Jul 2025)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (15 Jul 2025) by Gabriele Stiller

AR by Satoshi Sugawara on behalf of the Authors (16 Jul 2025)
Author's response
Author's tracked changes
Manuscript
ED: Publish as is (18 Jul 2025) by Gabriele Stiller

AR by Satoshi Sugawara on behalf of the Authors (19 Jul 2025)
Manuscript
This manuscript presents a novel data set of stratospheric δ13CO2 dating back to 1985 and examines the processes controlling its distribution and its potential use as an age tracer. I think this is a very useful dataset. The results presented will be of interest to ACP readers, and I think they will be acceptable for publication after relatively minor changes.
My main concern with the manuscript is the discussion of the δ13CP age results. I think the authors are overstating the agreement with the CO2 age estimate and the potential use of the δ13CP age estimate. Specifically, in the abstract it is stated that "the mean age derived from δ13CP was consistent with that derived from the CO2 mole fraction, suggesting its usefulness for further investigation of stratospheric transport processes.", while in the conclusions it is started that "it [δ13CP] should prove a useful tool for investigating stratospheric transport processes" and "d13CP age is slightly larger than CO2 age ... by about 1.1 years on average".
The stated consistency occurs only because there is a very large (30%) uncertainty in δ13CP, and consistency is in terms of the mean over all data. Figure 10 shows that there is no statistical agreement for many individual measurements. Also, I don't think an average bias of 20% (which is what 1.1 yrs is) can be considered small. Given this large uncertainty and bias, I am doubtful that δ13CP age is a useful estimate/tool, as stated in the abstract and conclusions. It has the potential to do this only if the uncertainty can be greatly reduced.
I think the text needs to be modified to better indicate that there is large uncertainty and bias, and this needs to be reduced if this is to be a useful age tracer.
Following on from this, I think there could be more discussion of potential errors. On line 549 it is stated that "it is likely that d13CP age is overestimated because the effect of methane oxidation was underestimated in the calculation of d13CT." Why was methane oxidation underestimated, and can an estimate of the impact of this be made?
Finally, the age calculation from δ13CP is buried at the end of Appendix C. Rather than having this appendix focused on CO2 and then meaning the new aspect (δ13CP) at the end, both tracers should be discussed at the start. Highlighting when differences in approach, or steps were could be large uncertainty.