Measuring and modeling the lifetime of nitrous oxide including its variability

Michael J Prather; Juno Hsu; Nicole M DeLuca; Charles H Jackman; Luke D Oman; Anne R Douglass; Eric L Fleming; Susan E Strahan; Stephen D Steenrod; O Amund Søvde; Ivar S A Isaksen; Lucien Froidevaux; Bernd Funke

doi:10.1002/2015JD023267

Measuring and modeling the lifetime of nitrous oxide including its variability

J Geophys Res Atmos. 2015 Jun 16;120(11):5693-5705. doi: 10.1002/2015JD023267. Epub 2015 Jun 5.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Earth System Science University of California Irvine Irvine California USA.
² NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt Maryland USA.
³ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt Maryland USA;Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Lanham Maryland USA.
⁴ Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Lanham Maryland USA.
⁵ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt Maryland USA; Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research Center Universities Space Research Association Columbia Maryland USA.
⁶ Center for International Climate and Environmental Research-Oslo Oslo Norway.
⁷ Department of Geosciences University of Oslo Oslo Norway.
⁸ Jet Propulsion Laboratory Pasadena California USA.
⁹ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, CSIC Granada Spain.

Abstract

Nitrous oxide lifetime is computed empirically from MLS satellite dataEmpirical N₂O lifetimes compared with models including interannual variabilityResults improve values for present anthropogenic and preindustrial emissions.

Keywords: anthropogenic emissions; atmospheric lifetime; models and measurements; nitrous oxide; perturbation lifetime; stratospheric photochemistry.