ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-8-6719-2008 Trend analysis of greenhouse gases over Europe measured by a network of ground-based remote FTIR instruments Gardiner T. 1 Forbes A. 1 de Mazière M. 2 Vigouroux C. 2 Mahieu E. 3 Demoulin P. 3 Velazco V. 4 Notholt J. 4 Blumenstock T. 5 Hase F. 5 Kramer I. 5 Sussmann R. 6 Stremme W. 6 Mellqvist J. 7 Strandberg A. 7 Ellingsen K. 8 Gauss M. 8 National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, UK Belgisch Instituut voor Ruimte-Aëronomie, Brussels, Belgium University of Liège, Institute of Astrophysics and Geophysics, Liège, Belgium University of Bremen, Department of Physics, Institute of Environmental Physics, Bremen, Germany Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Atmospheric Trace Constituents and Remote Sensing, Karlsruhe, Germany Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Atmospheric Environmental Research, Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway 24 11 2008 8 22 6719 6727 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/8/6719/2008/acp-8-6719-2008.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/6719/2008/acp-8-6719-2008.pdf

This paper describes the statistical analysis of annual trends in long term datasets of greenhouse gas measurements taken over ten or more years. The analysis technique employs a bootstrap resampling method to determine both the long-term and intra-annual variability of the datasets, together with the uncertainties on the trend values. The method has been applied to data from a European network of ground-based solar FTIR instruments to determine the trends in the tropospheric, stratospheric and total columns of ozone, nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide, methane, ethane and HCFC-22. The suitability of the method has been demonstrated through statistical validation of the technique, and comparison with ground-based in-situ measurements and 3-D atmospheric models.

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