For the tropospheric OH budget, let be hydroxyl radical production per unit volume and its total first-order loss frequency. The present hydroxyl radical steady state has
Here one year is days; using it consistently makes the reported lifetimes in years independent of that conversion convention. Methane's chemical lifetime is , giving
The current combined loss frequency already includes existing hydrogen, so add only the incremental hydrogen sink:
Holding production and the other losses fixed then gives and
The rapid hydroxyl radical adjustment time, of order a second, supports its steady-state approximation in this box model. Subsequent methane growth would itself change hydroxyl radical consumption, so the computed increase is not a fully coupled long-term atmospheric prediction. Detailed molecular hydrogen modelling treats changes in methane, ozone and stratospheric water alongside reductions in other precursor emissions.[ref]