Heavy Methanes as Atmospheric Tracers
GEORGE A. COWAN 1,
DONALD G. OTT 1,
ANTHONY TURKEVICH 2,
LESTER MACHTA 3,
GILBERT J. FERBER 3, and
NORMAN R. DALY 4
1 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545
2 Enrico Fermi Institute and Chemistry Department, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
3 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland
4 Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, Aldermaston, Reading, England RG7 4PR
Methane-21 (13CD4) is potentially a useful nonradioactive tracer for testing atmospheric transport and diffusion models on a continental scale. In an experiment to demonstrate this long-range utility, the release of 84 grams of methane-21 was detected at distances of 1500 to about 2500 kilometers at concentrations of about 1 part in 2 x 1016 parts (by volume) in the air by a technique in which methane was separated and the methane-21 content was measured with a mass spectrometer.
Submitted on April 10, 1975
Revised on November 18, 1975
