Nature Communications (Dec 2017)

Reduced biomass burning emissions reconcile conflicting estimates of the post-2006 atmospheric methane budget

  • John R. Worden,
  • A. Anthony Bloom,
  • Sudhanshu Pandey,
  • Zhe Jiang,
  • Helen M. Worden,
  • Thomas W. Walker,
  • Sander Houweling,
  • Thomas Röckmann

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02246-0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

Read online

The drivers of the increase in atmospheric methane since 2006 remain unclear. Here, the authors use satellite and in situ measurements of CO and CH4 to show that fossil fuels and biogenic sources contribute 12–19 Tg CH4per year and 12–16 Tg CH4per year respectively to the recent atmospheric methane increase.