Global increase of SF6 observed in the atmosphere
High precision long-term observations of the trace gas sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) in background air at Neumayer station, Antarctica (1986-1991), and at Izana observatory, Tenerife (1991-1992), are presented. Since the very first measurements in 1970 (0.03pptv), the purely anthropogenic greenhouse ga...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
1994
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/6867/ https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/6867/1/MaissGRL1994.pdf https://doi.org/10.11588/heidok.00006867 https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-opus-68673 |
| Summary: | High precision long-term observations of the trace gas sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) in background air at Neumayer station, Antarctica (1986-1991), and at Izana observatory, Tenerife (1991-1992), are presented. Since the very first measurements in 1970 (0.03pptv), the purely anthropogenic greenhouse gas SF6 has increased by two orders of magnitude to a global mean value of 2.8pptv in 1992. The observations can best be fitted by a quadratic curve with a recent increase rate of 8.3%/yr. A significant north-south gradient of 0.29pptv is observed. From this gradient an interhemispheric exchange time of 1.4 years is derived. A modeled atmospheric budget history agrees reasonably well with estimates of global SF6 production rates and leads to an extrapolated SF6 concentration of about 20pptv for the year 2030. |
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