Oxygen Isotopic Composition of Carbon Dioxide in the Middle Atmosphere

The isotopic composition of long-lived trace gases provides a window into atmospheric transport and chemistry. Carbon dioxide is a particularly powerful tracer, because its abundance remains >100 ppmv in the mesosphere. Current models consider O3 as the main source of O(1D) in the mesosphere, but we note that the photolysis of 16O17O and 16O18O by solar Lyman-α radiation yields O(1D) 10-100 times more enriched in 17O and 18O than that from ozone photodissociation. We therefore incorporate both photochemical sources into stratospheric and mesospheric chemical transport models that quantitatively predict the unusual enhancement of 17O in CO2 from the middle atmosphere. New laboratory and atmospheric measurements are proposed to test our model and validate the use of CO2 isotopic fractionation as a tracer of atmospheric chemical and dynamical processes. Once fully understood the `anomalous' oxygen signature in CO2 can be used in turn to study biogeochemical cycles, in particular to constrain the gross carbon fluxes between the atmosphere and terrestrial biosphere.