Global atmospheric hydrogen chemistry and source-sink budget equilibrium simulation with the EMAC v2.55 model

Surawski, Nic; Steil, Benedikt; Brühl, Christoph; Gromov, Sergey; Klingmüller, Klaus; Martin, Anna; Pozzer, Andrea; Lelieveld, Jos

doi:10.5194/gmd-19-911-2026

Articles | Volume 19, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-911-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-911-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 2

Model description paper

|

27 Jan 2026

Model description paper |

| 27 Jan 2026

Global atmospheric hydrogen chemistry and source-sink budget equilibrium simulation with the EMAC v2.55 model

Nic Surawski, Benedikt Steil, Christoph Brühl, Sergey Gromov, Klaus Klingmüller, Anna Martin, Andrea Pozzer, and Jos Lelieveld

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-911-2026-supplement

Data sets

Atmospheric Hydrogen Dry Air Mole Fractions from the NOAA GML Carbon Cycle Cooperative Global Air Sampling Network, 2009--2023 G. Petrol et al. https://doi.org/10.15138/WP0W-EZ08

ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1940 to present H. Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

Global fire emissions database, version 4.1 (GFEDv4) J. T. Randerson et al. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1293

Hydrogen deposition velocity K. Klingmüller https://doi.org/10.17617/3.PLYVTZ

Model code and software

The Modular Earth Submodel System Version 2.55.2_no-branch_b4754874_H2 The MESSy Consortium https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15211346

Short summary

Hydrogen usage will likely increase to achieve net zero emission targets. We undertook calculations with an Earth system model using a high-performance computer to explore hydrogen atmospheric dynamics. Simulations with our model yielded highly accurate results at global scale. Correctly representing hydroxyl radicals in the model is a critical requirement for predicting hydrogen concentrations well. Our hydrogen budget is also in very good agreement with bottom-up literature estimates.