Can radon help to improve methane emission estimates? Results from a dual-tracer inversion

Maier, Fabian; Rödenbeck, Christian; Karstens, Ute; Koch, Frank-Thomas; Gachkivskyi, Maksym; Smerald, Andrew; Gerbig, Christoph

doi:10.5194/acp-26-14699-2026

Articles | Volume 26, issue 20

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-14699-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-14699-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 26, issue 20

Research article

|

20 Oct 2026

Research article |

| 20 Oct 2026

Can radon help to improve methane emission estimates? Results from a dual-tracer inversion

Fabian Maier, Christian Rödenbeck, Ute Karstens, Frank-Thomas Koch, Maksym Gachkivskyi, Andrew Smerald, and Christoph Gerbig

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-14699-2026-supplement

Data sets

CarboScope CH4-Rn inversion results for Europe in 2021 Fabian Maier et al. https://doi.org/10.18160/HXMC-W51B

European Obspack compilation of atmospheric methane data from ICOS and non-ICOS European stations for the period 1984-2024; obspack_ch4_466_GVeu_v10.0_20240729 ICOS RI et al. https://doi.org/10.18160/PAWA-B2Y4

Radon flux estimates for central Europe 2021 (Version v1) Fabian Maier https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15919530

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Short summary

Transport model errors represent a major source of uncertainty in greenhouse gas flux estimates derived from inverse modelling, yet they remain challenging to quantify. In our study, we leverage the similarities in the atmospheric transport of methane (CH₄) and radon (²²²Rn) by performing a dual-tracer CH₄-²²²Rn inversion over Europe, with the goal of enhancing the reliability of CH₄ flux estimates. We discuss the benefits and limitations of this dual-tracer approach.