Abstract
The most abundant gases in dry air, N2 ( ≈ 78.1% by volume) and O2 ( ≈ 20.95% by volume), represent the equilibrium state of global biogeochemical processes that have operated on time scales of many millions of years. Among the remaining gases, the noble gas argon ( ≈ 0.93% by volume) is by far most abundant. Because of their great abundance and long lifetimes, human activities have not affected the concentrations of these major atmospheric constituents to any significant degree. Any changes due to human activities can, therefore, only reflect themselves in the concentrations of less abundant and shorter-lived gases. During the most recent centuries, Mankind has been changing atmospheric chemistry by the emissions of typical fossil and biomass fuel derived air pollutants, such as CO, SO2, NO, NO2, hydrocarbons, soot and sulphate particles, as well as a number of long-lived gases such as CH4, N2O, and the chlorofluorocarbons CFCl3 and CF2Cl2, which are not directly harmful to life, but exert a major influence on global atmospheric chemistry and climate.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Claude, H.: 1994, ‘25 Jahre Ozonforschung auf dem Hohenpeissenberg: Entwicklung und Highlights’, Tagungsband ‘100 Jahre Meteorologisches Observatorium Potsdam’, Annalen der Meteorologie Neue Folge (in press).
Crutzen, P.J.: 1973, ‘A discussion of the chemistry of some minor constituents in the stratosphere and troposphere’, Pure Appl. Geophys., 106–108, 1385–1399.
Crutzen, P.J.: 1991, ‘Methane sources and sinks’, Nature, 350, 380–381.
Crutzen, P.J. Ozone in the Troposphere, Chapter 8 in ‘Composition, Chemistry, and Climate of the Atmosphere: Air pollution, Air chemistry, and Global Change (H.B. Singh, Editor), Van Nostrand Reinhold, Publ., 1994 (in press).
Crutzen, P.J. and Zimmermann, P.H.: 1991, ‘The changing photochemistry of the troposphere’, Tellus, 43AB, 136–151.
Dentener, F.J. and Crutzen, P.J.: 1993, ‘Reaction of N2O5 on tropospheric aerosol: impact on the global distributions of NOx, O3 and OH’, J. Geophys. Res., 98 (D4), 7149–7164.
Dlugokencky, E.J., Masarie, K.A., Lang, P.M., Tans, P.P., and Steele, L.P.: ‘A dramatic decrease in the growth rate of atmospheric methane in the northern hemisphere during 1992’, Geophys. Res. Lett., 21, 45–48, 1994.
Gleason, J.F., Bhartia, P.K., Herman, J.R., McPeters, R., Newman, P., Stolarski, R.S., Flynn, L., Labow, G., Larko, D., Seftor, C., Wellemeyer, C., Komhyr, W.D., Miller, A.J., and Planet, W.: 1993, ‘Record low global ozone in 1992’, Science, 260, 523–526.
Lelieveld, J. and Crutzen, P.J.: 1990, ‘Influences of cloud photochemical processes on tropospheric ozone’, Nature, 343, 227–233.
Levy, H.: 1971, ‘Normal atmosphere: Large radical and formaldehyde concentrations predicted’, Science, 193, 141–143.
Madronich, S. and Granier, C: 1992, ‘Impact of recent total ozone changes on tropospheric ozone photodissociation, hydroxyl radicals, and methane trends’, Geophys. Res. Lett., 19, 37–40, 1992.
McConnell, J.C., McElroy, M.B., and Wofsy, S.C.: 1971, ‘Natural sources of atmospheric CO, Nature, 223, 187–188.
Novelli, P.C., Masaric, K.A., Tans, P.P., and Lang, P.M.: 1994, ‘Recent changes in atmospheric carbon monoxide’, Science, 263, 1587–1590.
Oltmans, S.J., Komhyr, W.D., Franchois, P.R., and Matthews, W.A.: 1989. ‘Tropospheric Ozone: Variations from surface and ozonesonde observations’, in Ozone in the Atmosphere (R. Bojkov and P. Fabian, Eds.), 539–543, A. Deepak Publ., Hampton, Virginia.
Prinn, R., Cunnold, D., Simmonds, P., Alyea, F., Boldi, R., Grawford, A., Fraser, P., Gutzier, D., Hartley, D., Rosen, R., and Rasmussen, R.: 1992, ‘Global average concentration and trend for hydroxyl radicals deduced from ALE/GAGE trichloroethane (methyl chloroform) data from 1978–1990’, J. Geophys. Res., 97, 2445–2462.
Volz, A. and Kley, D.: 1988, ‘Evaluation of the Montsouris series of ozone measurements made in the nineteenth century’, Nature, 332, 240–242.
Zander, R., Demoulin, Ph., Ehhalt, D.H., Schmidt, U. and Rinsland, C.P.: 1989, ‘Secular Increase of the total vertical column abundance of carbon monoxide above Central Europe since 1950’, J. Geophys. Res., 94, 11021–11028.
Zimmermann, P.: 1988, ‘MOGUNTIA: a handy global tracer model’ in: Air Pollution Modeling and its Applications VI, edited by H. van Dop, NATO/CCMS, Plenum, New York, pp 593–608.
Zimmermann, P.H., Feichter, H., Rath, H.K., Crutzen, P.J., and Weiss, W.: 1989, ‘A global three-dimensional source-receptor model investigating 85Kr’ Atmos. Environ., 23, 25–35.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Crutzen, P.J. (1994). Global Budgets for Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gases. In: van Ham, J., Janssen, L.J.H.M., Swart, R.J. (eds) Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gases: Why and How to Control?. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0982-6_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0982-6_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-4425-7
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-0982-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive