ABSTRACT
The seasonal, geographic, and secular variation of carbon dioxide vapor concentration in the mixing layer has been measured with unprecedented precision since 1957 [1-4]. Pales and Keeling [5], Komhyr et al. [1], and Gammon et al. [6] describe the annual and seasonal variation of carbon dioxide at fixed stations, which was simulated by Heimann and Keeling [7]. Tans et al. [8] reviewed atmospheric and marine carbon dioxide concentrations relative to the carbon budget of the earth and proposed that a major net carbon dioxide sink must be present in the extratropical Northern Hemisphere to account for the latitudinal variation observed. Hogan et al. [9] applied the data from some of these same carbon dioxide concentration archives to analysis of the seasonal change of antarctic aerosol concentrations. They found a relationship among the annual range of water vapor and carbon dioxide concentrations at several stations where these data sets coexisted, which were uniquely small at the South Pole. We offer some additional analysis of the concentration of water vapor in air with respect to the carbon dioxide concentration as a contribution to understanding the atmospheric chemical budget.
