Day Time Seasonal Variation of Ozone and Its Association with Methane at Different Pressures over Barrow, Alaska

Abstract

This study has explored the seasonal day time variations of the two most important trace gases involved in global warming i.e., Methane (CH4) and Ozone (O3). Since solar activities also play a vital role in the formation of ozone, and hence solar flux data is also consulted in the present paper. Here we have discussed, day hours seasonal variation of O3, solar flux and CH4 at different pressures for four different seasons i.e., winter, summer, autumn and spring. We have evaluated the correlation between O3, solar flux and CH4 over an American station “Barrow, Alaska” for a period of 18 years and conclude that in every season of the year, CH4 shows linear increment with a good significance level above 95%. The autumn season shows a good correlation between solar flux and O3 with a maximum value of 0.53 in October and a minimum value of 0.34 in November month. In the winter season, CH4 shows linear increment with a significance level above 95% at every pressure height. We also conclude that O3 shows an increment trend in March and April months, but its negative trend is found in May month of the spring season.