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Atmospheric science

The self-cleansing ability of prehistoric air

Nature volume 546, pages 41–42 (2017)Cite this article

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Isotopic data from an ice core have been used to estimate atmospheric oxidant levels during past climate transitions — pointing to relatively unexplored climate feedbacks as drivers of atmospheric composition. See Letter p.133

The atmosphere has a self-cleansing ability1 that stops certain air pollutants and greenhouse gases from accumulating, thereby preventing catastrophic consequences for air quality and climate, respectively2. The rate of self-cleansing — known as the oxidation capacity — determines the lifetime of such pollutants and gases, and depends on the abundance of oxidants in the troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere. It would be useful to know how tropospheric oxidant levels varied during past periods of climate change, to inform models that are being used to predict future climate, but such information has been conspicuously absent. On page 133, Geng et al.3 present a promising proxy data set for such oxidants during the most recent glacial–interglacial cycle (roughly the past 100,000 years), based on an isotopic quantity known as the oxygen-17 excess of nitrate, or Δ17O(NO3−).

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Figure 1: Factors influencing the self-cleansing ability of the troposphere.

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  1. Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6BX, UK

    Michaela I. Hegglin

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  1. Michaela I. Hegglin
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Correspondence to Michaela I. Hegglin.

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Hegglin, M. The self-cleansing ability of prehistoric air. Nature 546, 41–42 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/546041a

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