An assessment of the role of the North Atlantic as a CO 2 sink
A numerical interpolation scheme based upon the lateral diffusive and advective transport of ocean surface waters has been developed to interpolate measurements made in irregular time and space over the oceans. This has been applied to about 2700 surface ocean P CO 2 measurements observed during the...
Published in: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences |
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Language: | English |
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1995
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1995.0056 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.1995.0056 |
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rstb.1995.0056 2024-06-02T08:11:08+00:00 An assessment of the role of the North Atlantic as a CO 2 sink 1995 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1995.0056 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.1995.0056 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences volume 348, issue 1324, page 143-152 ISSN 0962-8436 1471-2970 journal-article 1995 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1995.0056 2024-05-07T14:16:30Z A numerical interpolation scheme based upon the lateral diffusive and advective transport of ocean surface waters has been developed to interpolate measurements made in irregular time and space over the oceans. This has been applied to about 2700 surface ocean P CO 2 measurements observed during the period 1972-1992 in the North Atlantic to give the distribution of sea-air P CO 2 difference (Δ P CO 2 ) over the Atlantic. Although the atmospheric CO 2 concentration has increased by about 28 ppm over this period, the P CO 2 values in the surface waters of subarctic regions have increased little because they are dictated primarily by the properties of underlying deep waters through vertical mixing. Accordingly, Δ P CO 2 values measured north of 50° N have been corrected to the year 1990 using the secular increase of atmospheric CO 2 . Because the surface water P CO 2 value in temperate waters tracks the secular increase in atmospheric CO 2 with a time lag of about two years, no correction was applied to the warm water Δ p CO 2 data. It has been assumed that seasonal variations are the same for each year. The net CO2 flux across the sea surface has been computed over a 4° latitude x 5° longitude grid using the mean monthly A p CO 2 values and the gas transfer coefficients estimated using the mean monthly wind speed. It has been found that the areas of the high latitude North Atlantic and the adjacent seas north of 42° N are net CO 2 sinks of 0.2 to 0.5 Gt G a -1 . The total sink flux of CO 2 over the temperate North Atlantic areas between 18° N and 42° N is balanced approximately by the source flux over the tropical Atlantic between 18° N and 18° S. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Subarctic The Royal Society Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 348 1324 143 152 |
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Open Polar |
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The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
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English |
description |
A numerical interpolation scheme based upon the lateral diffusive and advective transport of ocean surface waters has been developed to interpolate measurements made in irregular time and space over the oceans. This has been applied to about 2700 surface ocean P CO 2 measurements observed during the period 1972-1992 in the North Atlantic to give the distribution of sea-air P CO 2 difference (Δ P CO 2 ) over the Atlantic. Although the atmospheric CO 2 concentration has increased by about 28 ppm over this period, the P CO 2 values in the surface waters of subarctic regions have increased little because they are dictated primarily by the properties of underlying deep waters through vertical mixing. Accordingly, Δ P CO 2 values measured north of 50° N have been corrected to the year 1990 using the secular increase of atmospheric CO 2 . Because the surface water P CO 2 value in temperate waters tracks the secular increase in atmospheric CO 2 with a time lag of about two years, no correction was applied to the warm water Δ p CO 2 data. It has been assumed that seasonal variations are the same for each year. The net CO2 flux across the sea surface has been computed over a 4° latitude x 5° longitude grid using the mean monthly A p CO 2 values and the gas transfer coefficients estimated using the mean monthly wind speed. It has been found that the areas of the high latitude North Atlantic and the adjacent seas north of 42° N are net CO 2 sinks of 0.2 to 0.5 Gt G a -1 . The total sink flux of CO 2 over the temperate North Atlantic areas between 18° N and 42° N is balanced approximately by the source flux over the tropical Atlantic between 18° N and 18° S. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
title |
An assessment of the role of the North Atlantic as a CO 2 sink |
spellingShingle |
An assessment of the role of the North Atlantic as a CO 2 sink |
title_short |
An assessment of the role of the North Atlantic as a CO 2 sink |
title_full |
An assessment of the role of the North Atlantic as a CO 2 sink |
title_fullStr |
An assessment of the role of the North Atlantic as a CO 2 sink |
title_full_unstemmed |
An assessment of the role of the North Atlantic as a CO 2 sink |
title_sort |
assessment of the role of the north atlantic as a co 2 sink |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
1995 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1995.0056 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.1995.0056 |
genre |
North Atlantic Subarctic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic Subarctic |
op_source |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences volume 348, issue 1324, page 143-152 ISSN 0962-8436 1471-2970 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1995.0056 |
container_title |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
348 |
container_issue |
1324 |
container_start_page |
143 |
op_container_end_page |
152 |
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1800757171350142976 |