Science Update: UV absorption spectrum temperature dependence measurements of CFC-11 and impacts on its atmospheric lifetime and uncertainty

A recent GRL paper by M. McGillen and co-authors presents measurements of the CFC-11 (CFCl3) absorption spectrum over various wavelengths (184.95–230nm) and temperatures (216–296K). Uncertainty in the temperature dependence, particularly in the UV absorption spectrum, is a significant contributing factor of overall uncertainty in CFC-11’s global lifetime. They find that the spectrum temperature dependence is less than that currently in use and that this slightly reduces the CFC-11 lifetime calculated with a 2D model using a spectrum parameterization developed in this work. Find the full abstract here.