Methane flux into stratosphere

The flux of methane into the stratosphere is determined by eddy diffusion in the lower stratosphere. Here, the vertical profile of CH4 mixing ratios may be approximated by an exponential decrease with altitude... 

The total flux of methane into the stratosphere, 60 Tg/yr, combines with the rate of CH4 oxidation by OH to give a total sink strength of 400 Tg/yr. This agrees approximately with the global emission estimates of Table 4-7. Although methane has been observed to increase in the troposphere, the budget must be about balanced since the increase is slow. If we take a value of 400 Tg/yr as representative for ( Ch4 ch4 the tropospheric residence time for methane is... 

The stratosphere as a sink was first identified by Seiler and Junge (1969). The flux of CO into the stratosphere is caused by a decline of CO mixing ratios above the tropopause toward a steady-state level lower than that normally found in the upper troposphere (see Fig. 1-14). In the lower stratosphere, CO is produced from methane and other long-lived hydrocarbons, and it is consumed by reaction with OH as in the troposphere, but the rate of vertical mixing is much slower (Seiler and Warneck, 1972 Warneck et al., 1973). The flux of CO from the troposphere into the stratosphere can be derived from the observed gradient of the CO mixing ratio above the tropopause in a manner described in Section 4.3 for methane. The loss rate obtained, llOTg/yr, is small compared with that for the reaction of CO with OH radicals. 

---