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Comment
. 2017 May 23;114(21):5324-5326.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1704884114. Epub 2017 May 15.

Overexplaining or underexplaining methane's role in climate change

Michael J Prather  1 , Christopher D Holmes  2
Affiliations
Comment

Overexplaining or underexplaining methane's role in climate change

Michael J Prather et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .
No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
(A) Timeline of the international assessments of methane (CH4) as a greenhouse gas, denoting the period of data evaluated (fat arrows) and the publication date of each Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report [FAR (1), SAR (2), TAR (3), AR4 (4), AR5 (5), and projected AR6]. (B) Observed global mean CH4 [mole fraction in parts per billion (ppb), 10−9] for 1983–2017, showing both monthly (red diamonds) and annual (thick black line) averages (https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends_ch4/; downloaded on April 1, 2017). Thin vertical lines denote the end of the data record for each IPCC assessment. (C) The observed decay rate (1/y) of methylchloroform (CH3CCl3) calculated following ref. for 2000–2016, showing monthly (blue dots with uncertainty) and 12-mo running average (thick black line). The anomaly about the average decay rate (dashed gray line) is labeled in percentage on the right axis. Note that a 5% anomaly sustained for 1 y would cause a 10 ppb change in CH4.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

  • Role of atmospheric oxidation in recent methane growth.
    Rigby M, Montzka SA, Prinn RG, White JWC, Young D, O'Doherty S, Lunt MF, Ganesan AL, Manning AJ, Simmonds PG, Salameh PK, Harth CM, Mühle J, Weiss RF, Fraser PJ, Steele LP, Krummel PB, McCulloch A, Park S. Rigby M, et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 May 23;114(21):5373-5377. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1616426114. Epub 2017 Apr 17. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017. PMID: 28416657 Free PMC article.
  • Ambiguity in the causes for decadal trends in atmospheric methane and hydroxyl.
    Turner AJ, Frankenberg C, Wennberg PO, Jacob DJ. Turner AJ, et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 May 23;114(21):5367-5372. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1616020114. Epub 2017 Apr 17. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017. PMID: 28416668 Free PMC article.

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