IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v393y1998i6684d10.1038_30934.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Continuing decline in the growth rate of the atmospheric methane burden

Author

Listed:
  • E. J. Dlugokencky

    (NOAA Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory)

  • K. A. Masarie

    (NOAA Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory
    Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado)

  • P. M. Lang

    (NOAA Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory)

  • P. P. Tans

    (NOAA Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory)

Abstract

The global atmospheric methane burden has more than doubled since pre-industrial times1,2, and this increase is responsible for about 20% of the estimated change in direct radiative forcing due to anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions. Research into future climate change and the development of remedial environmental policies therefore require a reliable assessment of the long-term growth rate in the atmospheric methane load. Measurements have revealed that although the global atmospheric methane burden continues to increase2 with significant interannual variability3,4, the overall rate of increase has slowed2,5. Here we present an analysis of methane measurements from a global air sampling network that suggests that, assuming constant OH concentration, global annual methane emissions have remained nearly constant during the period 1984–96, and that the decreasing growth rate in atmospheric methane reflects the approach to a steady state on a timescale comparable to methane's atmospheric lifetime. If the global methane sources and OH concentration continue to remain constant, we expect average methane mixing ratios to increase slowly from today's 1,730 nmol mol−1 to ∼1,800 nmol mol−1, with little change in the contribution of methane to the greenhouse effect.

Suggested Citation

  • E. J. Dlugokencky & K. A. Masarie & P. M. Lang & P. P. Tans, 1998. "Continuing decline in the growth rate of the atmospheric methane burden," Nature, Nature, vol. 393(6684), pages 447-450, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:393:y:1998:i:6684:d:10.1038_30934
    DOI: 10.1038/30934
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/30934
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/30934?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mu, Liang & Zhou, Ziqi & Zhao, Huixing & Zhu, Xiaohai & Cui, Qingyan, 2024. "High-efficiency recovery of methane from coal bed gas via hydrate formation in emulsions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    2. Ivan Lima & Fernando Ramos & Luis Bambace & Reinaldo Rosa, 2008. "Methane Emissions from Large Dams as Renewable Energy Resources: A Developing Nation Perspective," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 193-206, February.
    3. Ramachandra, T.V. & Aithal, Bharath H. & Sreejith, K., 2015. "GHG footprint of major cities in India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 473-495.
    4. Ken Gregory, 1998. "Factors Affecting Future Emissions of Methane from Non Land Use Sources," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 321-341, December.
    5. Chin-Hsien Cheng & Simon A. T. Redfern, 2022. "Impact of interannual and multidecadal trends on methane-climate feedbacks and sensitivity," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:393:y:1998:i:6684:d:10.1038_30934. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.