Evaluation of data-based estimates of anthropogenic carbon in the Arctic Ocean ...

• Main Authors: Terhaar, J., Tanhua, T., Stöven, T., Orr, J. C., Bopp, L.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: American Geophysical Union 2020
• Subjects: 530 Physics; Arctic Ocean; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48350/158653; https://boris.unibe.ch/158653/

The Arctic Ocean is particularly vulnerable to ocean acidification, a process that is mainly driven by the uptake of anthropogenic carbon (Cant) from the atmosphere. Although Cant concentrations cannot be measured directly in the ocean, they have been estimated using data-based methods such as the transient time distribution (TTD) approach, which characterizes the ventilation of water masses with inert transient tracers, such as CFC-12. Here, we evaluate the TTD approach in the Arctic Ocean using an eddying ocean model as a test bed. When the TTD approach is applied to simulated CFC-12 in that model, it underestimates the same model's directly simulated Cant concentrations by up to 12%, a bias that stems from its idealized assumption of gas equilibrium between atmosphere and surface water, both for CFC-12 and anthropogenic CO2. Unlike the idealized assumption, the simulated partial pressure of CFC-12 (pCFC-12) in Arctic surface waters is undersaturated relative to that in the atmosphere in regions and times ...