Determination of the atmospheric lifetime and global warming potential of sulfur hexafluoride using a three-dimensional model

Kovács, Tamás; Feng, Wuhu; Totterdill, Anna; Plane, John M. C.; Dhomse, Sandip; Gómez-Martín, Juan Carlos; Stiller, Gabriele P.; Haenel, Florian J.; Smith, Christopher; Forster, Piers M.; García, Rolando R.; Marsh, Daniel R.; Chipperfield, Martyn P.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-883-2017

Articles | Volume 17, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-883-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-883-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 2

Research article

| Highlight paper

|

20 Jan 2017

Research article | Highlight paper |

| 20 Jan 2017

Determination of the atmospheric lifetime and global warming potential of sulfur hexafluoride using a three-dimensional model

Tamás Kovács, Wuhu Feng, Anna Totterdill, John M. C. Plane, Sandip Dhomse, Juan Carlos Gómez-Martín, Gabriele P. Stiller, Florian J. Haenel, Christopher Smith, Piers M. Forster, Rolando R. García, Daniel R. Marsh, and Martyn P. Chipperfield

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Final revised paper (published on 20 Jan 2017)
Preprint (discussion started on 18 Aug 2016)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Overall general comments', Anonymous Referee #1, 22 Sep 2016
- AC1: 'Response to Reviewer 1', Martyn Chipperfield, 05 Dec 2016
RC2: 'Reviewer 2', Anonymous Referee #2, 21 Oct 2016
- AC2: 'Response to Reviewer 2', Martyn Chipperfield, 05 Dec 2016

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Martyn Chipperfield on behalf of the Authors (06 Dec 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (06 Dec 2016) by William Thomas Sturges

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (06 Dec 2016)

ED: Publish as is (19 Dec 2016) by William Thomas Sturges

Short summary

Sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆) is a very potent greenhouse gas, which is present in the atmosphere only through its industrial use, for example as an electrical insulator. To estimate accurately the impact of SF₆ emissions on climate we need to know how long it persists in the atmosphere before being removed. Previous estimates of the SF₆ lifetime indicate a large degree of uncertainty. Here we use a detailed atmospheric model to calculate a current best estimate of the SF₆ lifetime.