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Updated: Aug 26, 2026

Measuring Carbon-based Contaminant Mineralization Using Combined CO2 Flux and Radiocarbon Analyses
Published on: October 21, 2016
An estimate on the rainout of atmospheric CO2
Chun-jiang Liu1, Hannu Ilvesniemi, Werner Kutsch
1Ecology Center, University of Kiel, Schauenburgerstr 112, DE-24118 Kiel, Germany. cliu@ecology.uni-kiel.de
Abstract:
The CO2 in the atmosphere is in contact with water vapor and rain droplets forming CO2 x H2O, HCO3- and CO3(2-) . Global precipitation is about 505 x 1015 kg/a. Based on theoretical calculation for unpolluted air and measurement observations, we estimated that 100-270 x 10(12) gC/a are scavenged from the air by global precipitation. This roughly equals carbon emissions from volcanic sources or 2-6 per cent of current CO2 emissions. An inventory-based estimate on carbon removal in northwestern Europe supports the above calculation on global scale. With increasing CO2 concentration in the air, precipitation scavenging may increase.
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