Radiocarbon as a thermocline proxy for the eastern equatorial

• Main Authors: Keith B. Rodgers, Olivier Aumont, Gurvan Madec, Christophe Menkes, Bruno Blanke, Patrick Monfray, James C. Orr, Daniel P. Schrag
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: thermocline. INDEX TERMS; 4231 Oceanography; General; Equatorial oceanography; 4255 Oceanography; Numerical modeling; 4808Oceanography; Biological and Chemical; Chemical; Antarctic; Galapagos; Pacific; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.664.1795; http://schraglab.unix.fas.harvard.edu/publications/CV64.pdf

[1] An ocean model is used to test the idea that sea surface D14C behaves as a thermocline proxy in the eastern equatorial Pacific. The ORCA2 model, which includes D14C as a passive tracer, has been forced with reanalysis fluxes over 1948–1999, and the output is compared with a previously reported Galapagos D14C record. The model reproduces the abrupt increase in the seasonally minimum D14C in 1976/77 found in the data. This increase is associated with neither a shift of thermocline depth over the NINO3 region, nor a change in the relative proportion of Northern/Southern source waters. Rather, it is due to a decrease in the Sub-Antarctic ModeWater (SAMW) component of the upwelling water, thereby representing a decrease in entrainment of water from below the base of the directly ventilated