Air from Greenland snow shows industrialization's impact on atmospheric methane
Researchers analyzed 40-year-old air trapped in Greenland's compacted snow to study historical methane concentrations. The study reveals that human industrial activity has significantly disrupted the natural balance of methane emissions and atmospheric breakdown.
Why it matters
Understanding the drivers of atmospheric methane is critical for climate modeling, as methane is the second most significant greenhouse gas contributing to global warming.
edited by Gaby Clark , reviewed by Andrew Zinin
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Add as preferred source Researchers obtained up to 40-year-old air from compacted snow, called firn, on Greenland. Credit: Thomas Röckmann An international team of researchers, including scientists from Utrecht University and the University of Maryland, has reconstructed the concentration of clumped isotopes of methane in air from the past for the first time. This provides new insights into how atmospheric methane concentrations have changed since the start of the industrial era, around 1850. For the study, the scientists used air that was roughly 40 years old, preserved in compacted snow (firn) in Greenland. The results were published in Science Advances .
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