The Earth's atmosphere – A stable isotope perspective and review

This review summarizes the stable isotope composition of the gases and aerosols comprising the Earth's atmosphere. Recent technical progress in analytical methodologies has enabled analysis the H- and O-isotopic composition of water vapor by remote sensing, precise measurement of the rare isoto...
Ausführliche Beschreibung

This review summarizes the stable isotope composition of the gases and aerosols comprising the Earth's atmosphere. Recent technical progress in analytical methodologies has enabled analysis the H- and O-isotopic composition of water vapor by remote sensing, precise measurement of the rare isotopes 17O, 33S and 36S, the recognition of mass-independent isotope fractionations, and determination of the stable isotope composition of volatile metals in aerosols. Together these approaches have resulted in new insights into atmospheric processes and permitted the delineation of atmospheric constituents derived from natural versus anthropogenic sources. Ice core analysis has demonstrated that the isotope composition of the atmosphere has changed continuously as a consequence of both past climate cycles and more recently because of fossil fuel and other anthropogenic emissions. Isotope proxies and geochemical modeling have recognized that the nature of the atmosphere has varied throughout geologic history and will continue to do so in the near future. Ausführliche Beschreibung