Revision of the stratospheric bomb (CO2)-C-14 inventory

About 4900 values of (CO2)-C-14 activity have been measured on stratospheri c air samples collected between 1953 and 1975 when the major nuclear weapon tests injected large amounts of C-14 into the atmosphere. However, the val idity of these data published in Health and Safety Laboratory reports was r epeatedly criticized and their relevance is thus usually denied in model st udies tracing the global carbon cycle with bomb (CO2)-C-14. TO oppose this criticism, we perform here a comprehensive analysis of the measurements and calculate stratospheric bomb (CO2)-C-14 inventories for the period in ques tion. We find out that the recognized weaknesses of the survey do not justi fy a general discrimination against the (CO2)-C-14 observations. Our (CO2)- C-14 inventories determined using numerical methods to interpolate the obse rvations widely confirm the more "hand-made" results from a former study by Telegadas [1971] except in the northern poleward stratosphere. We are also able to clear away the reasons commonly advanced to call into question the stratospheric bomb (CO2)-C-14 inventories by up to 20%. These findings reh abilitate the most extensive data set of stratospheric (CO2)-C-14 observati ons and establish them, together with our corresponding bomb (CO2)-C-14 inv entories, as a valuable observational constraint which should be seriously accounted for in global carbon cycle models and in other studies relying on an accurate simulation of air mass transport in the atmosphere.