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The atmospheric partial lifetime of carbon tetrachloride with respect to the global soil sink
Author(s) -
Rhew Robert C.,
Happell James D.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2016gl067839
Subject(s) - sink (geography) , environmental science , carbon tetrachloride , radiometer , atmospheric sciences , carbon sink , soil carbon , soil science , carbon cycle , environmental chemistry , soil water , remote sensing , chemistry , geology , ecology , climate change , ecosystem , oceanography , cartography , organic chemistry , geography , biology
The magnitude of the terrestrial soil sink for atmospheric carbon tetrachloride (CCl 4 ) remains poorly constrained, with the estimated uncertainty range of CCl 4 partial lifetimes between ~110 and 910 years. Field observations are sparse, and there are uncertainties in extrapolating these results to the global scale. Here we add to the published CCl 4 fluxes with additional field measurements, and we employ a land cover classification scheme based on Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer measurements that align more closely with the measurement sites to reevaluate the global CCl 4 soil sink. We calculate an updated partial lifetime of CCl 4 with respect to the soil sink to be 375 (288–536) years, which is 50 to 90% longer than the most recently published best estimates of the soil sink partial lifetime (195 and 245 years). This translates into a longer overall atmospheric lifetime estimate, which is more consistent with the observed atmospheric concentration trend and interhemispheric gradient.