Global stratospheric measurements of the isotopologues of methane from the  Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier transform spectrometer

Buzan, Eric M.; Beale, Chris A.; Boone, Chris D.; Bernath, Peter F.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1095-2016

Articles | Volume 9, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1095-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1095-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 9, issue 3

Research article

|

18 Mar 2016

Research article |

| 18 Mar 2016

Global stratospheric measurements of the isotopologues of methane from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier transform spectrometer

Eric M. Buzan, Chris A. Beale, Chris D. Boone, and Peter F. Bernath

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Final revised paper (published on 18 Mar 2016)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 29 Oct 2015)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC C4079: 'referee comments', Anonymous Referee #1, 25 Nov 2015
- AC C5120: 'Response to Referee #1', Eric Buzan, 22 Jan 2016
RC C4083: 'Comment on "Global methane isotopologues from ACE-FTS" by E.M.Buzan et al.', Anonymous Referee #2, 26 Nov 2015
- AC C5125: 'Response to Referee #2', Eric Buzan, 22 Jan 2016

Short summary

This paper presents the first global data set of atmospheric concentrations of the isotopologues of methane as measured by ACE-FTS. Both CH₃D and ¹³CH₄ show enrichment at higher altitudes and some seasonal variation at the poles. After applying a constant correction factor to the CH₃D data set, good agreement with existing balloon measurements is achieved. However, ¹³CH₄ still shows a large amount of error. Improved lab measurements of CH₄ would help reduce errors in the ACE-FTS data.