A 'clumped-isotope' study of stratospheric CO_2 reveals a new atmospheric process

Abstract

The stable isotope composition of stratospheric CO_2 is a long-lived tracer of stratospheric photochemical processing. Although the stratospheric CO_2 isotopologue budget is thought to be governed primarily by the O(^1D)+CO_2 isotope exchange reaction, there is increasing evidence that other important physical processes may be occurring that standard isotopic tools have been unable to identify. Measuring the distribution of the rare 'clumped' isotopologue ^(13)C^(18)O^(16)O, in concert with ^(12)C^(18)O^(16)O and ^(12)C^(17)O^(16)O abundances, provides sensitivities to these additional processes, and thus is a valuable test of current models.

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