Methylchloroform (MCF) measurements taken at the Atmospheric Lifetime
Experiment/Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (ALE/GAGE) measurement
stations are used to deduce the tropospheric OH concentration and its
linear trend between 1978 and 1993. Global three-dimensional fields of
OH are calculated with a transport model that includes background pho
tochemistry. Despite the large uncertainties in these OH fields, the s
imulated MCF concentrations at the five ALE/GAGE stations compare reas
onably well to the measurements, As a next step, the OH fields are adj
usted to fit the measurements optimally. An ensemble (Monte Carlo) tec
hnique is used to optimize the OH scaling factor and to derive the lin
ear trend in OH. The optimized OH fields and trend imply a MCF lifetim
e in the troposphere of 4.7 years in 1978 and of 4.5 years in 1993. Fo
r CH4 these lifetimes (due to OH destruction only) are 9.2 and 8.6 yea
rs in 1978 and 1993, respectively. Uncertainties in these estimates ar
e discussed using box-model calculations. The optimized OH concentrati
on is sensitive to the strength of other MCF sinks in the model and is
constrained to 1.00(-0.15)(+0.09) x 10(6) molecules cm(-3) in 1978 an
d to 1.07(-0.17)(+0.09) x 10(6) molecules cm(-3) in 1993. The deduced
OH trend is sensitive to the trend in the MCF emissions and is confine
d to the interval between -0.1 and +1.1% yr(-1) with a most likely val
ue of 0.46% yr(-1). Possible causes of a global increase in OH are dis
cussed. A positive OH trend is calculated due to stratospheric ozone d
epletion, declining CO concentrations, increased water vapor abundance
, and enhanced NOx emissions. Although the changes in the atmospheric
composition are to a large extent unknown, it seems that the observed
changes are consistent with significant increases in OH over the past
decades.