Earth System Dynamics
Earth System Dynamics
ESD
Articles | Volume 13, issue 2
Articles | Volume 13, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-703-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-703-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 13, issue 2
Research article
 | 
05 Apr 2022
Research article |  | 05 Apr 2022

CO2 surface variability: from the stratosphere or not?

Michael J. Prather

Related authors

Disentangling the chemistry and transport impacts of the quasi-biennial oscillation on stratospheric ozone
Jinbo Xie, Qi Tang, Michael Prather, Jadwiga Richter, and Shixuan Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 9315–9333, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-9315-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-9315-2025, 2025
Short summary
Opinion: The role of AerChemMIP in advancing climate and air quality research
Paul T. Griffiths, Laura J. Wilcox, Robert J. Allen, Vaishali Naik, Fiona M. O'Connor, Michael Prather, Alex Archibald, Florence Brown, Makoto Deushi, William Collins, Stephanie Fiedler, Naga Oshima, Lee T. Murray, Bjørn H. Samset, Chris Smith, Steven Turnock, Duncan Watson-Parris, and Paul J. Young
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 8289–8328, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8289-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8289-2025, 2025
Short summary
Experimental Protocol for Phase 1 of the APARC QUOCA (QUasibiennial oscillation and Ozone Chemistry interactions in the Atmosphere) Working Group
Clara Orbe, Alison Ming, Gabriel Chiodo, Michael Prather, Mohamadou Diallo, Qi Tang, Andreas Chrysanthou, Hiroaki Naoe, Xin Zhou, Irina Thaler, Dillon Elsbury, Ewa Bednarz, Jonathon S. Wright, Aaron Match, Shingo Watanabe, James Anstey, Tobias Kerzenmacher, Stefan Versick, Marion Marchand, Feng Li, and James Keeble
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2761,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2761, 2025
Short summary
Gridded surface O3, NOx, and CO abundances for model metrics from the South Korean ground station network
Calum P. Wilson and Michael J. Prather
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1757–1769, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1757-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1757-2025, 2025
Short summary
Implementation of solar UV and energetic particle precipitation within the LINOZ scheme in ICON-ART
Maryam Ramezani Ziarani, Miriam Sinnhuber, Thomas Reddmann, Bernd Funke, Stefan Bender, and Michael Prather
Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2024-227,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2024-227, 2025
Revised manuscript accepted for GMD
Short summary
More articles (8)

Cited articles

Baker, D. F., Law, R. M., Gurney, K. R., Rayner, P., Peylin, P., Denning, A. S., Bousquet, P., Bruhwiler, L., Chen, Y. H., Ciais, P., Fung, I. Y., Heimann, M., John, J., Maki, T., Maksyutov, S., Masarie, K., Prather, M., Pak, B., Taguchi, S., and Zhu, Z.: TransCom 3 inversion intercomparison: Impact of transport model errors on the interannual variability of regional CO2 fluxes, 1988–2003, Global Biogeochem. Cy., 20, Gb1002, https://doi.org/10.1029/2004gb002439, 2006. 
Cunnold, D. M., Fraser, P. J., Weiss, R. F., Prinn, R. G., Simmonds, P. G., Miller, B. R., Alyea, F. N., and Crawford, A. J.: Global trends and annual releases of CCl3F and CCl2F2 estimated from ALE/GAGE and other measurements from July 1978 to June 1991, J. Geophys. Res., 99, 1107–1126, https://doi.org/10.1029/93JD02715, 1994. 
Deng, F., Jones, D. B. A., Walker, T. W., Keller, M., Bowman, K. W., Henze, D. K., Nassar, R., Kort, E. A., Wofsy, S. C., Walker, K. A., Bourassa, A. E., and Degenstein, D. A.: Sensitivity analysis of the potential impact of discrepancies in stratosphere–troposphere exchange on inferred sources and sinks of CO2, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 11773–11788, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-11773-2015, 2015. 
Dlugokencky, E. J., Crotwell, A. M., Mund, J. W., Crotwell, M. J., and Thoning, K. W.: Atmospheric Nitrous Oxide Dry Air Mole Fractions from the NOAA GML Carbon Cycle Cooperative Global Air Sampling Network, 1997–2020, Version: 2021-07-30, NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory Data Repository [data set], https://doi.org/10.15138/53g1-x417, 2021a. 
Dlugokencky, E. J., Mund, J. W., Crotwell, A. M., Crotwell, M. J., and Thoning, K. W.: Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Dry Air Mole Fractions from the NOAA GML Carbon Cycle Cooperative Global Air Sampling Network, 1968–2020, Version: 2021-07-30, NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory Data Repository [data set], https://doi.org/10.15138/wkgj-f215, 2021b. 
More articles (33)
Download
Short summary
Atmospheric CO2 fluctuations point to changes in fossil fuel emissions plus natural and perturbed variations in the natural carbon cycle. One unstudied source of variability is the stratosphere, where the influx of aged CO2-depleted air can cause surface fluctuations. Using modeling and, separately, scaling the observed N2O variability, I find that stratosphere-driven surface variability in CO2 is not a significant uncertainty (at most 10 % of the observed interannual variability).
Read more
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint