Global chlorine emissions from biomass burning: Reactive Chlorine Emissions Inventory

Emissions of reactive chlorine-containing compounds from nine discrete classes of biomass burning were estimated on a 1 degrees latitude by 1 degrees longitude grid based on a biomass burning inventory for carbon emissions. Variations on approaches incorporating both emission ratios relative to CO and CO2 and the chlorine content of biomass burning fuels were used to estimate fluxes and associated uncertainties. Estimated, global emissions are 640 Gg Cl yr(-1) for CH3Cl; 49 Gg Cl yr(-1) for CH2Cl2; 1.8 Gg Cl yr(-1) for CHCl3; 13 Gg Cl yr(-1) for CH3CCl3; and 6350 Gg Cl yr(-1) for the sum of volatile-inorganic and particulate chlorine. Biomass burning appears to be the single largest source of atmospheric CH3Cl and a significant source of CH2Cl2; contributions of CHCl3 and CH3CCl3 are less than 2% of known sources.