Description and Evaluation of an Emission‐Driven and Fully Coupled Methane Cycle in UKESM1
Abstract Methane (CH4) is one of the most important trace gases in the atmosphere owing to its role as an exceedingly effective greenhouse gas and atmospheric pollutant. Better understanding of the global methane cycle and its interactions with the Earth system is therefore necessary for robust futu...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Geophysical Union (AGU)
2022-07-01
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| Series: | Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2021MS002982 |
| _version_ | 1817999337190326272 |
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| author | G. A. Folberth Z. Staniaszek A. T. Archibald N. Gedney P. T. Griffiths C. D. Jones F. M. O’Connor R. J. Parker A. A. Sellar A. Wiltshire |
| author_facet | G. A. Folberth Z. Staniaszek A. T. Archibald N. Gedney P. T. Griffiths C. D. Jones F. M. O’Connor R. J. Parker A. A. Sellar A. Wiltshire |
| author_sort | G. A. Folberth |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Methane (CH4) is one of the most important trace gases in the atmosphere owing to its role as an exceedingly effective greenhouse gas and atmospheric pollutant. Better understanding of the global methane cycle and its interactions with the Earth system is therefore necessary for robust future projections of anthropogenic climate change and assessments of multi‐gas mitigation strategies. Here we present a newly developed methane emission‐driven Earth system model to simulate the global methane cycle fully interactively. We provide an evaluation of methane sources and sinks and a full‐cycle methane budget and its change over the historic period. We further evaluate the methane atmospheric abundance and lifetime against available observations. The new methane emission‐driven model simulates all the components of the methane cycle within observational uncertainty. We calculate a total present‐day (2000–2009 decadal average) methane source of 591 Tg(CH4) yr−1 with 197 Tg(CH4) yr−1 coming from wetlands. These sources are nearly balanced by the global methane sinks amounting to 580 Tg (CH4) yr−1; reaction of methane with the hydroxyl radical in the troposphere alone removes 525 Tg(CH4) yr−1. The imbalance between sources and sinks of 11 Tg(CH4) yr−1 represents the atmospheric methane growth rate and is in fairly good agreement with current best estimates of 5.8 Tg(CH4) yr−1 with a range of 4.9–6.6 Tg(CH4) yr−1. At present‐day the model shows a maximum systematic negative‐bias of approximately 200 ppb in the methane surface mole fraction. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-14T03:07:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a17d85ecdc4647689fdeebe683dd0866 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1942-2466 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-14T03:07:17Z |
| publishDate | 2022-07-01 |
| publisher | American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems |
| spelling | doaj.art-a17d85ecdc4647689fdeebe683dd08662022-12-22T02:15:42ZengAmerican Geophysical Union (AGU)Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems1942-24662022-07-01147n/an/a10.1029/2021MS002982Description and Evaluation of an Emission‐Driven and Fully Coupled Methane Cycle in UKESM1G. A. Folberth0Z. Staniaszek1A. T. Archibald2N. Gedney3P. T. Griffiths4C. D. Jones5F. M. O’Connor6R. J. Parker7A. A. Sellar8A. Wiltshire9Met Office Hadley Centre Exeter UKDepartment of Chemistry University of Cambridge Cambridge UKDepartment of Chemistry University of Cambridge Cambridge UKMet Office Hadley Centre Joint Centre for Hydrometeorological Research Wallingford UKDepartment of Chemistry University of Cambridge Cambridge UKMet Office Hadley Centre Exeter UKMet Office Hadley Centre Exeter UKEarth Observation Science School of Physics and Astronomy University of Leicester Leicester UKMet Office Hadley Centre Exeter UKMet Office Hadley Centre Exeter UKAbstract Methane (CH4) is one of the most important trace gases in the atmosphere owing to its role as an exceedingly effective greenhouse gas and atmospheric pollutant. Better understanding of the global methane cycle and its interactions with the Earth system is therefore necessary for robust future projections of anthropogenic climate change and assessments of multi‐gas mitigation strategies. Here we present a newly developed methane emission‐driven Earth system model to simulate the global methane cycle fully interactively. We provide an evaluation of methane sources and sinks and a full‐cycle methane budget and its change over the historic period. We further evaluate the methane atmospheric abundance and lifetime against available observations. The new methane emission‐driven model simulates all the components of the methane cycle within observational uncertainty. We calculate a total present‐day (2000–2009 decadal average) methane source of 591 Tg(CH4) yr−1 with 197 Tg(CH4) yr−1 coming from wetlands. These sources are nearly balanced by the global methane sinks amounting to 580 Tg (CH4) yr−1; reaction of methane with the hydroxyl radical in the troposphere alone removes 525 Tg(CH4) yr−1. The imbalance between sources and sinks of 11 Tg(CH4) yr−1 represents the atmospheric methane growth rate and is in fairly good agreement with current best estimates of 5.8 Tg(CH4) yr−1 with a range of 4.9–6.6 Tg(CH4) yr−1. At present‐day the model shows a maximum systematic negative‐bias of approximately 200 ppb in the methane surface mole fraction.https://doi.org/10.1029/2021MS002982Earth system modelfully coupled methane cyclewetland emissionsmethane earth system feedbacksemission‐driven simulation |
| spellingShingle | G. A. Folberth Z. Staniaszek A. T. Archibald N. Gedney P. T. Griffiths C. D. Jones F. M. O’Connor R. J. Parker A. A. Sellar A. Wiltshire Description and Evaluation of an Emission‐Driven and Fully Coupled Methane Cycle in UKESM1 Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems Earth system model fully coupled methane cycle wetland emissions methane earth system feedbacks emission‐driven simulation |
| title | Description and Evaluation of an Emission‐Driven and Fully Coupled Methane Cycle in UKESM1 |
| title_full | Description and Evaluation of an Emission‐Driven and Fully Coupled Methane Cycle in UKESM1 |
| title_fullStr | Description and Evaluation of an Emission‐Driven and Fully Coupled Methane Cycle in UKESM1 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Description and Evaluation of an Emission‐Driven and Fully Coupled Methane Cycle in UKESM1 |
| title_short | Description and Evaluation of an Emission‐Driven and Fully Coupled Methane Cycle in UKESM1 |
| title_sort | description and evaluation of an emission driven and fully coupled methane cycle in ukesm1 |
| topic | Earth system model fully coupled methane cycle wetland emissions methane earth system feedbacks emission‐driven simulation |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1029/2021MS002982 |
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