Trends and variations in CO, C 2 H 6 , and HCN in the Southern Hemisphere point to the declining anthropogenic emissions of CO and C 2 H 6

• Published in: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
• Main Authors: N. B. Jones, J. Robinson, O. Morgenstern, S. W. Wood, G. Zeng, D. Smale
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2012
• Subjects: Physics; QC1-999; Chemistry; QD1-999; Arrival Heights; Austral; New Zealand; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-12-7543-2012; https://doaj.org/article/2ec5425d6bf94cd49069eef103642ec0

We analyse the carbon monoxide (CO), ethane (C 2 H 6 ) and hydrogen cyanide (HCN) partial columns (from the ground to 12 km) derived from measurements by ground-based solar Fourier Transform Spectroscopy at Lauder, New Zealand (45° S, 170° E), and at Arrival Heights, Antarctica (78° S, 167° E), from 1997 to 2009. Significant negative trends are calculated for all species at both locations, based on the daily-mean observed time series, namely CO (−0.94 ± 0.47% yr −1 ), C 2 H 6 (−2.37 ± 1.18% yr −1 ) and HCN (−0.93 ± 0.47% yr −1 ) at Lauder and CO (−0.92 ± 0.46% yr −1 ), C 2 H 6 (−2.82 ± 1.37% yr −1 ) and HCN (−1.41 ± 0.71% yr −1 ) at Arrival Heights. The uncertainties reflect the 95% confidence limits. However, the magnitudes of the trends are influenced by the anomaly associated with the 1997–1998 El Niño Southern Oscillation event at the beginning of the time series reported. We calculate trends for each month from 1997 to 2009 and find negative trends for all months. The largest monthly trends of CO and C 2 H 6 at Lauder, and to a lesser degree at Arrival Heights, occur during austral spring during the Southern Hemisphere tropical and subtropical biomass burning period. For HCN, the largest monthly trends occur in July and August at Lauder and around November at Arrival Heights. The correlations between CO and C 2 H 6 and between CO and HCN at Lauder in September to November, when the biomass burning maximizes, are significantly larger that those in other seasons. A tropospheric chemistry-climate model is used to simulate CO, C 2 H 6 , and HCN partial columns for the period of 1997–2009, using interannually varying biomass burning emissions from GFED3 and annually periodic but seasonally varying emissions from both biogenic and anthropogenic sources. The model-simulated partial columns of these species compare well with the measured partial columns and the model accurately reproduces seasonal cycles of all three species at both locations. However, while the model satisfactorily captures both the seasonality ...