|
|
Click to rotate molecule |
Units (Click to see graph) |
Global Warming Potential* |
Atmospheric lifetime (years)** |
| Carbon dioxide (CO2) |
|
|
1 |
120 |
| Methane (CH4) |
|
|
21 |
12 |
| Nitrous oxide (N2O) |
|
|
310 |
120 |
| Carbon monoxide (CO) |
|
|
0.25 | |
| CFC-11 (trichlorofluoromethane) (CCl3F) |
|
|
3,800 |
50 |
| CFC-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane) (CF2Cl2) |
|
|
8,100 |
102 |
| CFC-113 (trichlorotrifluoroethane) (CCl2FCClF2) |
|
|
4,800 |
85 |
| carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) |
|
|
1,400 |
42 |
* The Global Warming Potential (GWP) is typically used to contrast different greenhouse gases and provides a simple measure of the radiative effects of various greenhouse gases relative to CO2 defined as 1. One hundred year time horizon GWP's taken from Climate Change 1995: The Science of Climate Change . J.T. Houghton, L.G. Meira Filho, B.A. Callander, N. Harris, A. Kattenberg and K. Maskell for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1996, pages 22 and 119.
** Atmospheric lifetimes (general term used for the "adjustment time", the time-scale characterizing the decay of an instantaneous pulse input into the reservoir) taken from Climate Change 1995: The Science of Climate Change J.T. Houghton, L.G. Meira Filho, B.A. Callander, N. Harris, A. Kattenberg and K. Maskell for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK,1996, pages 92-93.