The solubility of a suite of low molecular weight organochlorine compounds in seawater and implications for estimating the marine source of methyl chloride to the atmosphere

Abstract Oceanic measurements made to determine the fluxes of methyl chloride between the sea surface and atmosphere have pointed to the possibility of significant errors in literature values for the solubility of this gas in seawater. In this work the Henry's Law constant for CH 3 Cl in seawater has been measured as ln H=8.83−2866/T , where T is the absolute temperature. Also reported are solubilities for CH 2 Cl 2 , CHCl 3 , C 2 HCl 3 and C 2 Cl 4 . The influence of the new value for CH 3 Cl on estimates of its global oceanic source to the atmosphere is discussed. The net flux of CH 3 Cl from the ocean to the atmosphere is estimated to be in the range: 6.4–8 × 10 9 moles yr −1 (0.3–0.4 T g yr −1 ).