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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 1, NUMBER 6, DECEMBER 1988

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY

Item #d88dec39

"Ancient Carbon Sources of Atmospheric Methane," (correspondence), T. Gold, Nature, 335(6188), 404, Sep. 29, 1988.

Methane has a far larger greenhouse effect than a similar quantity of carbon in the form of CO₂. The gas-producing industry may be helping to restrain the greenhouse effect by burning methane to CO₂ and water.

Item #d88dec40

"Measurements of Atmospheric Methyl Bromide and Bromoform," R.J. Cicerone (NCAR, POB 3000, Boulder CO 80307), L.E. Heidt, W.H. Pollock, J. Geophys. Res., 93(D4), 3745-3749, Apr. 20, 1988.

Summarizes the results of about 750 measurements of CH3Br and 900 measurements of CHBr3 from ground-level sites in Alaska, Hawaii, Samoa and New Zealand. Methyl bromide concentrations were typically 10-11 ppt by volume with no clear indications of temporal increases. Bromoform concentrations were typically 2-3 ppt, but large seasonal variations were seen at Point Barrow.

Item #d88dec41

"Enhanced Biogenic Emissions of Nitric Oxide and Nitrous Oxide Following Surface Biomass Burning," I.C. Anderson (NASA Langley Res. Ctr., MS 401B, Hampton VA 23665), J.S. Levine et al., ibid., 3893-3898.

For the first time measurements indicate that fires in a natural ecosystem can result in significantly enhanced biogenic emissions of both N₂O and NO from soils, which persist for at least six months. Enhanced levels of exchangeable ammonium in the soil also follow a surface burn.

Item #d88dec42

"Diurnal Variation of Nitric Oxide at 32 km: Measurements and Interpretation," Y. Kondo (Res. Inst. Atmos., Nagoya Univ., Honohara 3-13, Toyokawa 442, Japan), W.A. Matthews et al., ibid., 93(D3), 2451-2460, Mar. 20, 1988.

Presents the results of the NO and ozone measurements obtained from two balloon flights at Aire sur l'Adour, France. The observed temporal variation of NO is interpreted quantitatively in terms of current photochemistry in relation to ozone.

Item #d88dec43

"Far-Infrared Measurement of Stratospheric Carbon Monoxide," M.M. Abbas (Space Sci. Lab., NASA, Huntsville, Alabama), M.J. Glenn et al., Geophys. Res. Letters, 15(2), 140-143, Feb. 1988.

Presents for the first time the vertical profile of stratospheric CO obtained from infrared thermal emission spectra. The results of 24.6 + or - 7.6 ppbv at 21 km and 34.4 + or - 10.1 ppbv at 37 km are compared with the remote sensing and in situ measurements by other groups and with photochemical-dynamical model calculations.

Item #d88dec44

"Midlatitude ClO Below 22 Km Altitude: Measurements with a New Aircraft-Borne Instrument," W.H. Brune (Dept. Chem., Harvard Univ., Cambridge MA 02138), E.M. Weinstock, J.G. Anderson, ibid., 144-147.

Midlatitude stratospheric ClO was measured for the first time. ClO mixing ratio increases from less than 0.5 pptv at 16.8 km to 2.0 pptv at 18.3 km and 10.1 pptv at 21 km. As ClO is only a small fraction of the total inorganic chlorine at these altitudes, concludes that 1) catalytic chlorine chemistry is not an important odd-oxygen loss mechanism below 22 km in the northern midlatitudes, as predicted by the photochemical models, and 2) heterogeneous chemistry does not dramatically perturb the partitioning of inorganic chlorine.