Professional Documents
Culture Documents
AOSC 637
Atmospheric Chemistry
Russell R. Dickerson
OUTLINE
Importance
Detection Techniques
Sources and Sinks
Global Chemistry & Trends
Remaining Challenges
Bibliography
Copyright © 2010 R. R. Dickerso 1
n
Methane
Importance
• Greenhouse gas with 25 times the warming potential of CO2. Absorption bands
at 3.5 & 7.5 m.
• Nontoxic
Copyright © 2010 R. R. Dickerso 2
n
• Sources hard to pin down.
Copyright © 2010 R. R. Dickerso 3
n
IPCC, 2007
(1) O3 + h O2 + O(1D)
(2) O(1D) + H2O 2OH
(3) OH + CH4 H2O + CH3
(4) CH3 + O2 + M H3CO2 + M†
(5) HO2 + H3CO2 O2 + HOOCH3
(6) HOOCH3 dry dep (insoluble)
-----------------------------------------
(3+4) 2O3 3O2 NET
CH3 + O2 + M CH3O2 + M†
HO2 + NO NO2 + OH
NO2 + h NO + O
O + O 2 + M O3 + M
-------------------------------------------------
(3'-7') CH4 + 2 O2 H2O + 2O3 + CH2O NET
Copyright © 2010 R. R. Dickerso 9
n
Detection Methods
• GC-FID
• FTIR
• Tunable Diode Laser Spectroscopy
Perkin Elmer
Autosystem
Gas
Chromatograph
• James Lovelock
– ECD
– Gaia hypothesis
creates charged particles (ions) from molecules. It then analyzes those ions to
A mass spectrometer
provide information about the molecular weight of the compound and its chemical
structure. There are many types of mass spectrometers and sample introduction
techniques which allow a wide range of analyses. Mass spectrometry is powerful
and widely used method of identifying and detecting VOC’s
BIOMASS
BURNING ANIMALS
WETLANDS 20 90
180 LANDFILLS
50
GLOBAL METHANE
SOURCES (Tg CH4 yr-1) GAS
60
TERMITES
COAL
25 RICE
40
85
Copyright © 2010 R. R. Dickerson 23
Copyright © 2010 R. R. Dickerso 24
n
Anaerobic conditions in
the waterlogged soils of
rice paddies can host
methanogenic bacteria.
These are believed to
generate 50-100 Tg
CH4/yr.
Problem with scaling from lab to world. Upper limit 125 Tg.
S Houweling et al, Geophysical Research Letters, 2006, 33, DOI:
1029/2006GL026162.
“The results of a single publication stating that terrestrial plants emit methane
has sparked a discussion in several scientific journals, but an independent test
has not yet been performed. Here it is shown, with the use of the stable isotope
13C and a laser-based measuring technique, that there is no evidence for
substantial aerobic methane emission by terrestrial plants, maximally 0.3% (0.4
ng g−1 h−1) of the previously published values. Data presented here indicate that
the contribution of terrestrial plants to global methane emission is very small at
best.” Dueck, T. et al. New Phytol. 175, 29-35 (2007).
• The uncertainty in the emissions is larger than can be explained by measurement uncertainty.
• A warmer, wetter climate will lead to faster methane release from soils and methane hydrates.
• Recent evidence indicates that chlorine atoms may be a substantial sink for CH 4. (Thornton et al,
2010; von Glasow, 2010).