Abstract
Ambient air collected and stored in calibration tanks with inert internal surfaces was analysed by the electron capture–gas chromatography techniques (EC–GC) for measuring CHClF2 (fluorocarbon-22 or F-22) at atmospheric concentrations of between 30 and 60 p.p.t.v. (10−12). Repeated measurements of F-22 in these tanks over the past 18 months have shown no significant changes in concentration, implying that the measurements reflect the atmospheric concentrations of F-22 when the air was collected. The resulting time series, based on 360 measurements made on 100 different samples, shows that CHClF2 concentrations increased at an average exponential rate of 11.7% yr−1 (90% confidence limits: 9.8%–13.2% yr−1) between April 1976 and January 1981. Based on this time series, it is shown here that a constant 200 × 106 kg of F-22 in the Earth's atmosphere cannot be accounted for by the global anthropogenic emissions estimated by McCarthy et al.1,2. This excess is ∼26% of the estimated present global burden of F-22 in the entire atmosphere.
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Khalil, M., Rasmussen, R. Increase of CHClF2 in the Earth's atmosphere. Nature 292, 823–824 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1038/292823a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/292823a0
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