Strong Southern Ocean carbon uptake evident in airborne observations

Long, Matthew C.; Stephens, Britton B.; McKain, Kathryn; Sweeney, Colm; Keeling, Ralph F.; Kort, Eric A.; Morgan, Eric J.; Bent, Jonathan D.; Chandra, Naveen; Chevallier, Frederic; Commane, Róisín; Daube, Bruce C.; Krummel, Paul B.; Loh, Zoë; Luijkx, Ingrid T.; Munro, David; Patra, Prabir; Peters, Wouter; Ramonet, Michel; Rödenbeck, Christian; Stavert, Ann; Tans, Pieter; Wofsy, Steven C.

doi:10.1126/science.abi4355

i

Strong Southern Ocean carbon uptake evident in airborne observations

2021
By Long, Matthew C. ; Stephens, Britton B. ; McKain, Kathryn ; ...

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Journal Title:

Science
Personal Author:

Long, Matthew C. ; Stephens, Britton B. ; McKain, Kathryn ; Sweeney, Colm ; Keeling, Ralph F. ; Kort, Eric A. ; Morgan, Eric J. ; Bent, Jonathan D. ; Chandra, Naveen ; Chevallier, Frederic ; Commane, Róisín ; Daube, Bruce C. ; Krummel, Paul B. ; Loh, Zoë ; Luijkx, Ingrid T. ; Munro, David ; Patra, Prabir ; Peters, Wouter ; Ramonet, Michel ; Rödenbeck, Christian ; Stavert, Ann ; Tans, Pieter ; Wofsy, Steven C.
NOAA Program & Office:

OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; CPO (Climate Program Office) ; GML (Global Monitoring Laboratory) ; CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences)
Description:

The Southern Ocean plays an important role in determining atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), yet estimates of air-sea CO2 flux for the region diverge widely. In this study, we constrained Southern Ocean air-sea CO2 exchange by relating fluxes to horizontal and vertical CO2 gradients in atmospheric transport models and applying atmospheric observations of these gradients to estimate fluxes. Aircraft-based measurements of the vertical atmospheric CO2 gradient provide robust flux constraints. We found an annual mean flux of –0.53 ± 0.23 petagrams of carbon per year (net uptake) south of 45°S during the period 2009–2018. This is consistent with the mean of atmospheric inversion estimates and surface-ocean partial pressure of CO2 (PCO2)–based products, but our data indicate stronger annual mean uptake than suggested by recent interpretations of profiling float observations.
Keywords:

Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Atmospheric Models Ocean-atmosphere Interaction Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Atmospheric Models Ocean-atmosphere Interaction Multidisciplinary
Source:

Science, 374(6572), 1275-1280
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abi4355
Document Type:

Journal Article
Funding:

NA15OAR4320071
Place as Subject:

Antarctic Ocean
Rights Information:

Other
Compliance:

Submitted
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha256:768af169521b8c8d40be6222d63a190f5ef3245cf8cd9a02a0d6a9f648d4ff96
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/45316/noaa_45316_DS1.pdf
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[PDF - 928.70 KB ]

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