Implications of model bias in carbon monoxide for methane lifetime

Abstract

Abstract. A low bias in carbon monoxide (CO) at high northern latitudes is a common feature of chemistry climate models (CCMs) that may indicate or contribute to a high bias in simulated OH and corresponding low bias in methane lifetime. We use simulations with CO tagged by source type to investigate the sensitivity of the CO bias to CO emissions, global mean OH, and the hemispheric asymmetry of OH. Our results show that reducing the hemispheric asymmetry of OH improves the agreement of simulated CO with observations. We use simulations with parameterized OH to quantify the impact of known model biases on simulated OH. Removing biases in ozone and water vapor as well as reducing Northern Hemisphere NOx does not remove the hemispheric asymmetry in OH, but brings the simulated methyl chloroform lifetime into agreement with observation-based estimates.