Identification

Title

Quantification of the SF6 lifetime based on mesospheric loss measured in the stratospheric polar vortex

Abstract

Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) is a greenhouse gas with one of the highest radiative efficiencies in the atmosphere as well as an important indicator of transport time scales in the stratosphere. The current widely used estimate of the atmospheric lifetime of SF6 is 3200years. In this study we use in situ measurements in the 2000 Arctic polar vortex that sampled air with up to 50% SF6 loss to calculate an SF6 lifetime. Comparison of these measurements with output from the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) shows that WACCM transport into the vortex is accurate and that an important SF6 loss mechanism, believed to be electron attachment, is missing in the model. Based on the measurements and estimates of the size of the vortex, we calculate an SF6 lifetime of 850years with an uncertainty range of 580-1400years. The amount of SF6 loss is shown to be consistent with that of HFC-227ea, which has a lifetime of 670-780years, adding independent support to our new SF6 lifetime estimate. Based on the revised lifetime the global warming potential of SF6 will decrease only slightly for short time horizons (<100years) but will decrease substantially for time horizons longer than 2000years. Also, the use of SF6 measurements as an indicator of transport time scales in the stratosphere clearly must account for potential influence from polar vortex air.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d76975hj

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2017-04-27T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact