The global methane budget 2000–2017

• Published in: Earth System Science Data
• Main Authors: Saunois, Marielle, Stavert, Ann, Poulter, Ben, Bousquet, Philippe, Canadell, Josep, Jackson, Robert, Raymond, Peter, Dlugokencky, Edward, Houweling, Sander, Patra, Prabir, Ciais, Philippe, Arora, Vivek, Bastviken, David, Bergamaschi, Peter, Blake, Donald, Brailsford, Gordon, Bruhwiler, Lori, Carlson, Kimberly, Carrol, Mark, Castaldi, Simona, Chandra, Naveen, Crevoisier, Cyril, Crill, Patrick, Covey, Kristofer, Curry, Charles, Etiope, Giuseppe, Frankenberg, Christian, Gedney, Nicola, Hegglin, Michaela, Höglund-Isaksson, Lena, Hugelius, Gustaf, Ishizawa, Misa, Ito, Akihiko, Janssens-Maenhout, Greet, Jensen, Katherine, Joos, Fortunat, Kleinen, Thomas, Krummel, Paul, Langenfelds, Ray, Laruelle, Goulven, Liu, Licheng, Machida, Toshinobu, Maksyutov, Shamil, Mcdonald, Kyle, Mcnorton, Joe, Miller, Paul, Melton, Joe, Morino, Isamu, Müller, Jurek, Murguia-Flores, Fabiola, Naik, Vaishali, Niwa, Yosuke, Noce, Sergio, O'Doherty, Simon, Parker, Robert, Peng, Changhui, Peng, Shushi, Peters, Glen, Prigent, Catherine, Prinn, Ronald, Ramonet, Michel, Régnier, Pierre, Riley, William, Rosentreter, Judith, Segers, Arjo, Simpson, Isobel, Shi, Hao, Smith, Steven, Steele, L. Paul, Thornton, Brett, Tian, Hanqin, Tohjima, Yasunori, Tubiello, Francesco, Tsuruta, Aki, Viovy, Nicolas, Voulgarakis, Apostolos, Weber, Thomas, van Weele, Michiel, van Der Werf, Guido, Weiss, Ray, Worthy, Doug, Wunch, Debra, Yin, Yi, Yoshida, Yukio, Zhang, Wenxin, Zhang, Zhen, Zhao, Yuanhong, Zheng, Bo, Zhu, Qing, Zhu, Qiuan, Zhuang, Qianlai
• Other Authors: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), Modélisation INVerse pour les mesures atmosphériques et SATellitaires (SATINV), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research Aspendale, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Canberra (CSIRO), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Department of Earth System Science Stanford (ESS), Stanford EARTH, Stanford University-Stanford University, Yale School of the Environment (YSE), NOAA/University of Colorado, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Boulder, SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON), Research Institute for Global Change (RIGC), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), ICOS-ATC (ICOS-ATC), Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis (CCCma), Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Department of Thematic Studies – Technology and Social Change, Linköping University (LIU), European Commission - Joint Research Centre Ispra (JRC), Department of Chemistry Irvine, University of California Irvine (UC Irvine), University of California (UC)-University of California (UC), National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Wellington (NIWA), New York University New York (NYU), NYU System (NYU), Università degli studi della Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli" = University of the Study of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539) (LMD), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X)-École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Département des Géosciences - ENS Paris, École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL), Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Skidmore College Saratoga Springs, Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium, University of Victoria Canada (UVIC), Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia - Sezione di Roma (INGV), Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences Pasadena, California Institute of Technology (CALTECH), Met Office Hadley Centre (MOHC), United Kingdom Met Office Exeter, University of Reading (UOR), International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis Laxenburg (IIASA), National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR), Universität Bern / University of Bern (UNIBE)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2020
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces; environment; Arctic
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-02969930; https://hal.science/hal-02969930/document; https://hal.science/hal-02969930/file/essd-12-1561-2020.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-1561-2020

International audience Understanding and quantifying the global methane (CH4) budget is important for assessing realistic pathways to mitigate climate change. Atmospheric emissions and concentrations of CH4 continue to increase, making CH4 the second most important human-influenced greenhouse gas in terms of climate forcing, after carbon dioxide (CO2). The relative importance of CH4 compared to CO2 depends on its shorter atmospheric lifetime, stronger warming potential, and variations in atmospheric growth rate over the past decade, the causes of which are still debated. Two major challenges in reducing uncertainties in the atmospheric growth rate arise from the variety of geographically overlapping CH4 sources and from the destruction of CH4 by short-lived hydroxyl radicals (OH). To address these challenges, we have established a consortium of multidisciplinary scientists under the umbrella of the Global Carbon Project to synthesize and stimulate new research aimed at improving and regularly updating the global methane budget. Following Saunois et al. (2016), we present here the second version of the living review paper dedicated to the decadal methane budget, integrating results of top-down studies (atmospheric observations within an atmospheric inverse-modelling framework) and bottom-up estimates (including process-based models for estimating land surface emissions and atmospheric chemistry, inventories of anthropogenic emissions, and data-driven extrapolations).For the 2008–2017 decade, global methane emissions are estimated by atmospheric inversions (a top-down approach) to be 576 Tg CH4 yr−1 (range 550–594, corresponding to the minimum and maximum estimates of the model ensemble). Of this total, 359 Tg CH4 yr−1 or ∼ 60 % is attributed to anthropogenic sources, that is emissions caused by direct human activity (i.e. anthropogenic emissions; range 336–376 Tg CH4 yr−1 or 50 %–65 %). The mean annual total emission for the new decade (2008–2017) is 29 Tg CH4 yr−1 larger than our estimate for the previous ...