Better understanding of how ozone, an air pollutant and greenhouse gas, is removed is essential for improved modeling and prediction of air pollution, ecosystem health, and climate.

Methane is the second most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas in the atmosphere after carbon dioxide, with U.S. oil and natural gas supply chain methane emissions, in particular, making up about 41% of anthropogenic emissions in the United States.

The new research in Nature Geoscience suggests that global budget estimates of ozone-depleting substances as well as other trace gases like methane could be improved by accounting for the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation’s influence.

Accessible via the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center, the database provides the most detailed estimates available of where CO₂ is emitted from within the transportation sector and will help scientists and decision makers track how CO₂ emissions are changing over time and across U.S. cities.

Agricultural activities are the main source of nitrous oxide emissions from human activities, but there is limited attention to agriculture as a major contributor to increasing emissions likely from a lack of understanding of mechanisms controlling nitrous oxide emissions.