Global warming gases Ozone

Global Warming and increased Climatic Variability due to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Accumulation in the Atmosphere and Increased Radiation due to Ozone Depletion by Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC). 

Recent estimates indicate that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by a third since the beginning of the industrial age, and that it contributes significantly to global warming. Other major contributors include methane, tropospheric ozone, and nitrous oxide. Methane is the principal component of natural gas, but it is also produced by other sources such as rice paddies and farm animals. Tropospheric ozone is generated naturally and by the sunlight-... 

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an important greenhonse gas with a radiative forcing effect 310 times that of CO2 and a lifetime in the troposphere of approximately 120 years. Part of the N2O is converted to NO in the stratosphere, and so contributes to depletion of ozone. Nitric oxide (NO) is very reactive in the atmosphere and has a lifetime of only 1-10 days. It contribntes to acidification and to reactions leading to the formation of ozone in the troposphere, and so also to global warming. 

Besides NOx oxides, there is nitrous oxide (N2O), which is of special interest in isotope geochemistry. N2O is present in air at around 300 ppb and increases by about 0.2% per year. Nitrous oxide is an important greenhouse gas that is, on a molecular basis, a much more effective contributor to global warming than CO2 and that is also a major chemical control on stratospheric ozone budgets. 

Globally, the oxides of nitrogen, NO (nitric oxide), NO2 (nitrogen oxide), and N2O (nitrous oxide), are key species involved in the chemistry of the troposphere and stratosphere. NO and N2O are produced mostly by microbial soil activity, whereas biomass burning is also an important source of NO. Nitric oxide is a species involved in the photochemical production of ozone in the troposphere, is involved in the chemical produaion of nitric acid, and is an important component of acid precipitation. Nitrous oxide plays a key role in stratospheric ozone depletion and is an important greenhouse gas, with a global warming potential more than 200 times that of CO2. 

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