References

ACP

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

ACP

1680-7324

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/acp-7-6119-2007

The influence of biogenic emissions on upper-tropospheric methanol as revealed from space

Dufour

¹ ⁶ Szopa

² Hauglustaine

D. A.

² Boone

C. D.

³ Rinsland

C. P.

⁴ Bernath

P. F.

³ ⁵

Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique/Institut Pierre Simon Laplace (LMD/IPSL), Palaiseau, France

Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE/IPSL), CNRS-CEA-UVSQ Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Department of Chemistry, University of Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada

NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, USA

Deparment of Chemistry, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK

now at: Laboratoire Inter-universitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques (LISA), Universités Paris 12 et Paris 7, CNRS, Créteil, France

13 12 2007

7 24 6119 6129

This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/7/6119/2007/acp-7-6119-2007.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/7/6119/2007/acp-7-6119-2007.pdf

The distribution and budget of oxygenated organic compounds in the atmosphere and their impact on tropospheric chemistry are still poorly constrained. Near-global space-borne measurements of seasonally resolved upper tropospheric profiles of methanol (CH3OH) by the ACE Fourier transform spectrometer provide a unique opportunity to evaluate our understanding of this important oxygenated organic species. ACE-FTS observations from March 2004 to August 2005 period are presented. These observations reveal the pervasive imprint of surface sources on upper tropospheric methanol: mixing ratios observed in the mid and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere reflect the seasonal cycle of the biogenic emissions whereas the methanol cycle observed in the southern tropics is highly influenced by biomass burning emissions. The comparison with distributions simulated by the state-of-the-art global chemistry transport model, LMDz-INCA, suggests that: (i) the background methanol (high southern latitudes) is correctly represented by the model considering the measurement uncertainties; (ii) the current emissions from the continental biosphere are underestimated during spring and summer in the Northern Hemisphere leading to an underestimation of modelled upper tropospheric methanol; (iii) the seasonal variation of upper tropospheric methanol is shifted to the fall in the model suggesting either an insufficient destruction of CH3OH (due to too weak chemistry and/or deposition) in fall and winter months or an unfaithful representation of transport; (iv) the impact of tropical biomass burning emissions on upper tropospheric methanol is rather well reproduced by the model. This study illustrates the potential of these first global profile observations of oxygenated compounds in the upper troposphere to improve our understanding of their global distribution, fate and budget.

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