This is a detailed account of the current scientific understanding of atmospheric methane, a potent "greenhouse" gas which plays an important role in the environment. The contributors discuss the global sources and concentrations of methane, and its role in global warming.
Methane plays many important roles in the earth's environment. It is a potent "greenhouse gas" that warms the earth; controls the oxidizing capacity of the atmosphere (OH) indirectly affecting the cycles and abundances of many atmospheric trace gases; provides water vapor to the stratosphere; scavenges chlorine atoms from the stratosphere, terminating the catalytic ozone destruction by chlorine atoms, including the chlorine released from the man-made chlorofluorocarbons; produces ozone, CO, and CO2 in the troposphere; and it is an index of life on earth and so is present in greater quantities during warm interglacial epochs and dwindles to low levels during the cold of ice ages. By all measures, methane is the second only to CO2 in causing future global warming. The book presents a comprehensive account of the current understanding of atmospheric methane, and it is an end point for summarizing more than a decade of intensive research on the global sources, sinks, concentrations, and environmental role of methane.
Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on the Atmospheric Methane Cycle: Sources, Sinks, Distributions, and Role in Global Change, held at Mt. Hood near Portland, OR, USA, October 7-11, 1991
