References

ACP

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

ACP

1680-7324

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/acp-9-7449-2009

Global carbon tetrachloride distributions obtained from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE)

Allen

N. D. C.

¹ Bernath

P. F.

¹ ² Boone

C. D.

² Chipperfield

M. P.

³ Fu

² ⁴ Manney

G. L.

⁴ ⁵ Oram

D. E.

⁶ Toon

G. C.

⁴ Weisenstein

D. K.

⁷

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

Department of Chemistry, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

Department of Physics, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM, USA

School of Environmental Science, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc., Lexington, Massachusetts, USA

07 10 2009

9 19 7449 7459

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/9/7449/2009/acp-9-7449-2009.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/9/7449/2009/acp-9-7449-2009.pdf

The first study of the global atmospheric distribution of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4), as a function of altitude and latitude, was performed using solar occultation measurements obtained by the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) mission using Fourier transform spectroscopy. A total of 8703 profile measurements were taken in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere between February 2004 and August 2007. The zonal distribution of carbon tetrachloride displays a slight hemispheric asymmetry and decreasing concentration with increasing altitude at all latitudes. Maximum carbon tetrachloride concentrations are situated below 10 km in altitude with VMR (Volume Mixing Ratio) values of 100–130 ppt (parts per trillion). The highest concentrations are located about the Equator and at mid-latitudes, particularly for latitudes in heavily industrialised regions (20–45° N), with values declining towards the poles. Global distributions obtained from ACE were compared with predictions from three chemistry transport models showing good agreement in terms of the vertical gradient despite an overall offset. The ACE dataset gives unique global and temporal coverage of carbon tetrachloride and its transport through the atmosphere. An estimated lifetime for carbon tetrachloride of 34±5 years was determined through correlation with CFC-11.

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