Atmospheric Methane: An Introduction

Abstract

Methane is a greenhouse gas thought to be second only to CO2 as an agent of future global warming. The increasing trend is the single most important reason for the current interest in methane It is the foundation for much of the research on methane during the past decade, particularly on the global budget, which is tied directly to explaining why it is increasing. Figure 1 (a-f) shows the concentration and trends of methane over the recent decades and back to a thousand years. I want to describe briefly the progress towards the understanding of global budgets and trends, and to provide a guide to the book.