Abrupt reversal in emissions and atmospheric abundance of HCFC-133a (CF3CH2Cl)

Martin Vollmer (Lead Author), Matt Rigby, Johannes Laube, Stephan Henne, Tae Siek Rhee, Lauren Gooch, Angelina Wenger, Dickon Young, Paul Steele, Ray Langenfelds, Carl Brenninkmeijer, Jia-Lin Wang, Chang-Feng Ou-Yang, Simon Wyss, Matthias Hill, David Oram, Paul Krummel, Fabian Schoenenberger, Christoph Zellweger, Paul FraserWilliam Sturges, Simon O'Doherty, Stefan Reimann

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Abstract

Hydrochlorofluorocarbon HCFC-133a (CF3CH2Cl) is an anthropogenic compound whose consumption for emissive use is restricted under the Montreal Protocol. A recent study showed rapidly increasing atmospheric abundances and emissions. We report that, following this rise, the at- mospheric abundance and emissions have declined sharply in the past three years. We find a Northern Hemisphere HCFC-133a increase from 0.13 ppt (dry air mole fraction in parts-per-trillion) in 2000 to 0.50 ppt in 2012–mid-2013 followed by an abrupt reversal to 0.44 ppt by early 2015. Global emissions derived from these observations peaked at 3.1 kt in 2011, followed by a rapid decline of 0.5 kt yr−2 to 1.5 kt yr−1 in 2014. Sporadic HCFC-133a pollution events are detected in Europe from our high-resolution HCFC-133a records at three European stations, and in Asia from sam- ples collected in Taiwan. European emissions are estimated to be <0.1 kt yr−1 although emission hotspots were identi- fied in France.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)8702–8710
Number of pages9
JournalGeophysical Research Letters
Volume42
Issue number20
Early online date23 Oct 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 Oct 2015

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