1. Increasing Methane Emissions and Widespread Cold‐Season Release From High‐Arctic Regions Detected Through Atmospheric Measurements.
- Author
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Ward, Rebecca H., Sweeney, Colm, Miller, John B., Goeckede, Mathias, Laurila, Tuomas, Hatakka, Juha, Ivakov, Viktor, Sasakawa, Motoki, Machida, Toshinobu, Morimoto, Shinji, Goto, Daisuke, and Ganesan, Anita L.
- Subjects
ATMOSPHERIC methane ,CLIMATE change mitigation ,ATMOSPHERIC transport ,ATMOSPHERIC models ,METHANE ,EMISSION inventories - Abstract
Rising Arctic temperatures pose a threat to the large carbon stores trapped in Arctic permafrost. To assess methane emissions in high‐Arctic regions, we analyzed atmospheric data from Alaska and Siberia using two methods: (a) a wind sector approach to calculate emission changes based on concentration enhancements using wind direction, and (b) an inversion method utilizing a high‐resolution atmospheric transport model. Incorporating data after 2015, we observed a significant rise in methane emissions (0.018 ± 0.005 Tg yr−2 from 2000 to 2021) from Alaska's North Slope, indicating a shift from previous analyses. We find 34%–50% of yearly emissions occurred in the late season (September–December) consistently across multiple years and regions, which is historically underestimated in models and inventories. Our findings reveal significant changes occurring in the Arctic, highlighting the crucial role of long‐term atmospheric measurements in monitoring the region, especially during the cold season. Plain Language Summary: The Arctic is undergoing dramatic changes with temperatures increasing at four times the global average. This increase in temperature threatens to thaw the large stores of frozen carbon in Arctic soils which can be released as methane, a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. We use measurements of methane in the atmosphere from four Arctic Ocean coastal stations to quantify emissions from the surface. We find that emissions from the North Slope of Alaska have been increasing over the past three decades, which reflects a change from previous analyses. Additionally, we show large and consistent emissions from September to December across multiple Arctic regions. This season has traditionally been underestimated in global methane budgets and providing accurate methane quantification is vital for climate change mitigation. Our results show that important change is occurring in the Arctic, and long‐term atmospheric data can be used to monitor this change, particularly in the cold season. Key Points: Increasing tundra methane emissions from the Alaskan North Slope from 1986 to 2021 are now detected through long‐term atmospheric measurementsEmissions from the late season (September–December) are found to be persistent across multiple years and from three high Arctic regionsLate season underestimation of emissions in models and inventories is attributed to an underestimation of the emitting area [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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