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Atmospheric chemistry

Better budgets for methyl halides?

Nature volume 403, pages 260–261 (2000)Cite this article

Methyl bromide (CH3Br) and methyl chloride (CH3Cl) both originate in large part from natural sources. These gases can reach the stratosphere where their halogen atoms, released through photolysis, catalytically destroy ozone. Three papers in this issue1,2,3 (pages 292, 295, 298) may help to close large gaps in the calculated budgets of methyl halides in the atmosphere. They also open up possibilities for improving our understanding of the fluxes of other naturally produced, halogenated gases.

Methyl bromide is the single largest carrier of bromine to the stratosphere, where, on a per-atom basis, it is 50–60 times more effective than chlorine in depleting ozone4. Although natural sources dominate the methyl bromide budget, there is a sizeable anthropogenic flux to the atmosphere through its use as a fumigant. Its industrial production is due to be phased out, largely because of its high ozone-depletion potential. Methyl chloride, on the other hand, is the most abundant chlorine-containing compound in the atmosphere, contributing over 15% to the total tropospheric burden of organic chlorine. Its sources are believed to be largely natural and there is some evidence that it was present at over 90% of today's levels during the early twentieth century5. Both methyl halides have lifetimes of around a year, making them much shorter-lived than the CFCs, solvents and halons currently banned by international agreement. Nevertheless, their large fluxes into the atmosphere mean that they reach the stratosphere, where they become involved in ozone depletion.

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Figure 1: Equivalent chlorine in ozone-depleting halogenated gases.
Figure 2: Sources of atmospheric methyl chloride and methyl bromide.

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  1. the Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , 325 Broadway, Boulder, 80303, Colorado, USA

    James H. Butler

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Butler, J. Better budgets for methyl halides? . Nature 403, 260–261 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35002232

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