Regional Sources and CH4 Seasonal Cycle in Central Siberia and the Arctic: Observations and Numerical Calculations

Abstract

Contributions of anthropogenic and wetland methane emissions in Northern Eurasia (>40° N) and Russia into the near-surface CH₄ abundance are quantified using GEOS-chem global chemical transport model at ZOTTO, Teriberka, and Tiksi measurement sites. Numerical results agree well with the proposed semianalytical solution, in which the total contribution (atmospheric response) in the CH₄ level at a given site is decomposed into direct (synoptic) and global terms. On an advection timescale corresponding to a synoptic time interval, the annual average direct contribution of Russian anthropogenic emissions into the CH₄ mixing ratio measured at ZOTTO (38.6 ppbv) is more than twice as large as that for Western Europe sources (17.7 ppbv). For the Arctic sites, the anthropogenic inputs from Russian and European sources are roughly similar (19.5 and 12.4 ppbv, respectively). The input from continental sources into near-surface methane abundance and its annual variations at the Arctic sites are generally lower compared to those at the ZOTTO site due to larger transport times from upstream CH₄ source regions. Model-based atmospheric responses in methane levels at the Teriberka and Tiksi sites to continental CH₄ sources are found to be very close owing to the relatively homogeneous (circumpolar) spatial distributions of the anthropogenic and biogenic signals at high latitudes.