edu.ucar.opensky::articles:21214 UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact 2025-12-25T16:08:20.149094 ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data ISO 19115-2:2009(E) https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d76w9dp9 Reduced biomass burning emissions reconcile conflicting estimates of the post-2006 atmospheric methane budget 2017-12-20T00:00:00Z publication https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d76w9dp9 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02246-0 Worden, J. R. author Bloom, A. A. author Pandey, S. author Jiang, Zhe author Worden, Helen M. author Walker, T. W. author Houweling, S. author Röckmann, T. author UCAR/NCAR - Library publisher Several viable but conflicting explanations have been proposed to explain the recent similar to 8 p.p.b. per year increase in atmospheric methane after 2006, equivalent to net emissions increase of similar to 25 Tg CH4 per year. A concurrent increase in atmospheric ethane implicates a fossil source; a concurrent decrease in the heavy isotope content of methane points toward a biogenic source, while other studies propose a decrease in the chemical sink (OH). Here we show that biomass burning emissions of methane decreased by 3.7 (+/- 1.4) Tg CH4 per year from the 2001-2007 to the 2008-2014 time periods using satellite measurements of CO and CH4, nearly twice the decrease expected from prior estimates. After updating both the total and isotopic budgets for atmospheric methane with these revised biomass burning emissions (and assuming no change to the chemical sink), we find that fossil fuels contribute between 12-19 Tg CH4 per year to the recent atmospheric methane increase, thus reconciling the isotopic-and ethane-based results. UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact PDF Text theme Resource Type 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z publication Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. None eng geoscientificInformation