Stable carbon isotopic composition of atmospheric methane: A comparison of surface level and free tropospheric air

• Main Authors: Tyler, SC, Ajie, HO, Gupta, ML, Cicerone, RJ, Blake, DR, Dlugokencky, EJ
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: eScholarship, University of California 1999
• Subjects: Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences; Pacific; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7d04g34m

We report CH4 mixing ratios and δ13C of CH4 values for remote air at two ground-based atmospheric sampling sites for the period December 1994 to August 1998 and similar data from aircraft sampling of air masses from near sea level to near tropopause in September and October of 1996 during the Global Tropospheric Experiment Pacific Exploratory Mission (PEM)-Tropics A. Surface values of δ13C-CH4 ranged from -47.02 to -47.52‰ at Niwot Ridge, Colorado (40° N, 105° W), and from -46.81 to -47.64‰ at Montaña de Oro, California (35° N, 121° W). Samples for isotopic analysis were taken from 2° to 27° S latitude and 81° to 158° W longitude and from sea level to 11.3 km in altitude during the PEM-Tropics A mission. They represent the first study of 13CH4 in the tropical free troposphere. At ∼11 km, δ13C-CH4 was ∼1‰ greater than surface level values. Methane was generally enriched in 13C as altitude increased and as latitude increased (toward the South Pole). Using criteria to filter out stratospheric subsidence and convective events on the basis of other trace gases present in the samples, we find evidence of a vertical gradient in δ13C-CH4 in the tropical troposphere. The magnitude of the isotopic shifts in atmospheric CH4 with altitude are examined with a two-dimensional tropospheric photochemical model and experimentally determined values for carbon kinetic isotope effects in chemical loss processes of CH4 Model-calculated values for δ13C-CH4 in both the troposphere and lower stratosphere significantly underpredict the enrichment in 13CH4 with altitude observed in our measurement data and data of other research groups. Copyright 1999 by the American Geophysical Union.