What can we learn about tropospheric OH from satellite observations of methane?

Penn, Elise; Jacob, Daniel J.; Chen, Zichong; East, James D.; Sulprizio, Melissa P.; Bruhwiler, Lori; Maasakkers, Joannes D.; Nesser, Hannah; Qu, Zhen; Zhang, Yuzhong; Worden, John

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2947-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2947-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2947-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 5

Research article

|

11 Mar 2025

Research article |

| 11 Mar 2025

What can we learn about tropospheric OH from satellite observations of methane?

Elise Penn, Daniel J. Jacob, Zichong Chen, James D. East, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Lori Bruhwiler, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Hannah Nesser, Zhen Qu, Yuzhong Zhang, and John Worden

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2947-2025-supplement

Data sets

University of Leicester GOSAT Proxy XCH4 v9.0 R. Parker and H. Boesch https://doi.org/10.5285/18ef8247f52a4cb6a14013f8235cc1eb

CMS: Global 0.5-deg Wetland Methane Emissions and Uncertainty (WetCHARTs v1.0) A. A. Bloom et al. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1502

The model data outputs from the Atmospheric Chemistry & Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ACCMIP) D. Shindell et al. https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/ded523bf23d59910e5d73f1703a2d540

Evaluation of single-footprint AIRS CH4 profile retrieval uncertainties using aircraft profile measurements (https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datasets/TRPSDL2CH4AIRSFS_1/summary) S. S. Kulawik et al. https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-335-2021

A global gridded (0.1° × 0.1°) inventory of methane emissions from oil, gas, and coal exploitation based on national reports to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/HH4EUM) T. R. Scarpelli et al. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-563-2020

Gridded emissions of air pollutants for the period 1970–2012 within EDGAR v4.3.2 (https://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset_ghg432) M. Crippa et al. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-1987-2018

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Short summary

The hydroxyl radical (OH) destroys many air pollutants, including methane. Global-mean OH cannot be directly measured, and thus it is inferred with the methyl chloroform (MCF) proxy. MCF is decreasing, and a replacement is needed. We use satellite observations of methane in two spectral ranges as a proxy for OH. We find shortwave infrared observations can characterize yearly OH and its seasonality but not the latitudinal distribution. Thermal infrared observations add little information.