Carbon-13 isotopic abundance and concentration of atmospheric methane for background air in the Southern and Northern Hemispheres from 1978 to 1989

Atmospheric methane (CH{sub 4}) may become an increasingly important contributor to global warming in future years. Its atmospheric concentration has risen, doubling over the past several hundred years, and additional methane is thought to have a much greater effect on climate, on a per molecule basis, than additional C0{sub 2} at present day concentrations (Shine et al. 1990). The causes of the increase of atmospheric CH{sub 4} have been difficult to ascertain because of a lack of quantitative knowledge of the fluxes (i.e., net emissions) from the numerous anthropogenic and natural sources. The goal of CH{sub 4} isotopic studies is to provide a constraint (and so reduce the uncertainties) in estimating the relative fluxes from the various isotopically distinct sources, whose combined fluxes must result in the measured atmospheric isotopic composition, after the fractionating effect of the atmospheric removal process is considered. In addition, knowledge of the spatial and temporal changes in the isotopic composition of atmospheric CH{sub 4}, along with estimates of the fluxes from some of the major sources, makes it possible to calculate growth rates for sources whose temporal emissions trends would be difficult to measure directly.