Sulfur Hexafluoride

Starting date: 1-11-2008 Status: Running Instrumentation and calibration: Sulfur Hexafluoride is measured by using a GC-ECD (Agilent 6890N); separation is performed on a double column system (precolumn/backflush and analytical column, both Hayesep Q), isothemrically. Each run is 15 minute long. Each ambient air sample is bracketed with calibration runs. The working standards are based on NOAA2006 scale. Project affiliation (s) Present: AGAGE Past: SOGE, SOGE-A Related research programmes

• Tropospheric background condition
• Greenhouse gases
• Long-range transport

Why is this research important? The anthropogenic gas sulfur Hexafluoride (SF₆) have been discovered recently to be accumulating at rapid rates in the Earth's atmosphere. Although SF₆ presently makes an insignificant contribution to the atmospheric greenhouse effect, it has estimated a global warming potential many thousands of times greater than CO₂. The SF₆ high global warming potential are a consequence of its relatively long atmospheric lifetimes that exceed 3000 years, due to the chemical inertness, and its high efficiency as absorber of infrared radiation.

Quick look

Time series of SF₆ at ICO-OV (blue dots) and measurement reproducibility (red dots) calculated by the standard deviation of the recurrent reference gas mixture analysis on a daily basis.

Organization (s): Urbino University Dipartimento di Scienza di Base e Fondamenti piazza Rinascimento 6, I-61029, Urbino ISAC-CNR Via Gobetti 101, I-40129, Bologna www.isac.cnr.it
Contact persons: Prof. Michela Maione e-mail: michela.maione [at] uniurb.it phone: +39 0722 303316
Dr. Jgor Arduini e-mail: jgor.arduini [at] uniurb.it phone: +39 0722 303316
Dr. Paolo Bonasoni e-mail: p.bonasoni [at] isac.cnr.it, phone: +39 051 6399590
Where can I find the data? World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases (WDCGG) or by direct request to: michela.maione [at] uniurb.it, jgor.arduini [at] uniurb.it