Oh radicals, where are you?!
Meanwhile, the methane-bombing OH radicals are decreasing with decreasing NOx pollution from cars: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adn1115
"Interannual changes in atmospheric oxidation over forests determined from space" #Shuttler et al 2024
And 7% more water vapour per 1°C warming means fewer radicals are born: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adn0415
"Resetting tropospheric OH and CH4 lifetime with ultraviolet H2O absorption", #Prather et al 2024
Water vapour lowers UV radiation from the sun. UV is necessary to trigger excitement in NOx and ozone to produce the radicals.
Particularly during #ElNino, the two factors above, water vapour and NOx, lower the OH concentrations in the tropics https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/21/6481/2021/
"Spatial and temporal variability in the hydroxyl (OH) radical: understanding the role of large-scale climate features and their influence on OH through its dynamical and photochemical drivers" #Anderson et al. 2021
Aha! I had thought that La Nina increases CH4 growth, but it's during El Nino when OH radicals are scarcer.
Also Indian Ocean Dipole reigns over radicals in India's methane sources, ie landfills, rice paddies and wetlands.
We need more radicals!
