The lifetimes of organosulphur compounds in the troposphere

Dimethyl sulphide and other reduced sulphur compounds, produced by marine biogenic activity and other processes, play a significant role in the global biogeochemical cycling of the element. The rates of their reactions with atmospheric oxidants are reviewed and their lifetimes in the troposphere due to the various reactions are computed. Sufficient data are available on the tropospheric abundance of the hydroxyl radical (OH) and on the rates of its reactions with the sulphur compounds for reasonable estimates to be made of the sulphur lifetimes with respect to OH. Summertime lifetimes of 14–87 h for (CH₃)₂S are computed at different latitudes. In the case of the tropospheric concentrations of the nitrate radical (NO₃), few data are available. There is a similar paucity of data on its rates of reactions with the sulphur compounds, and so large uncertainties exist in the computed lifetimes. These are, in any case, much longer than those due to OH. The possibility exists that iodine photochemistry, producing iodoxyl (IO) radicals, may efficiently oxidize the reduced sulphur and other organic compounds in the marine troposphere leading to lifetimes of the order of hours. Few data exist on the rates or mechanisms of these reactions and these are identified as representing the greatest uncertainties in the estimates of organosulphur lifetimes in the troposphere.