Laurence Yeung, Hagit Affek, Katherine Hoag, Weifu Guo, Aaron
Wiegel, Elliot Atlas, Sue Schauffler, Mitchio Okumura, Kristie Boering, and John Eiler, Large and unexpected enrichment in stratospheric ¹⁶O¹³C¹⁸O and its meridional variation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106 (2009), 11496–11501

Stratospheric air samples drawn from a New Mexico balloon flight and an Arctic field experiment indicate that ¹⁶O¹³C¹⁸O amounts are higher and more variable than at the surface. The proportion of ¹⁶O¹³C¹⁸O found in the Arctic compared to the amount expected from simultaneous, separate measurements of ¹⁶O, 3C, and ¹⁸O is the highest observed in nature to date. Laboratory experiments sugges that ¹⁶O¹³C¹⁸O becomes enriched through different processes in the polar stratosphere than elsewhere, which could impose new constraints on analyses of biosphere-atmosphere carbon exchange.

CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY • YALE UNIVERSITY • UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY • UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI • NCAR

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