Atmospheric chemistry and transport from isotopic analysis

Global change depends critically on the concentrations of gases present in the atmosphere at trace levels. The balance between the production and the loss terms governs the concentration of these gases. The stable isotope abundance can be used to provide insight as to the sources and regional and global transformations of greenhouse gases. In particular, the additional information obtained from the construction of an isotopomers budget reduces the uncertainties in the grand budget. To obtain such isotopom er budgets, the isotopic signature of the trace gas’ sources and its atmospheric sinks must be quantified. The necessary information is not available today. The project aims at quantifying the isotopic signatures of relevant chemical and photolytic reacti ons of important atmospheric trace gases and includes both laboratory and theoretical studies. In addition, comparative photolysis experiments will be carried out at the EUPHORE facility in Valencia, Spain.