| Summary: | The feasibility of using remotely sensed data to map the marine sources of a photoreactive trace gas was investigated by comparing satellite ocean color data with result of a photochemical model with atmospheric measurements of dimethyl sulfide (DMS). A mean DMS flux for a region in the tropical North Atlantic for October 1980 was derived, using an empirical relationship between DMS and chlorophyll a data obtained by the CZCS instrument, and was compared with the sea-to-air flux derived from a one-dimensional photochemical model that reproduces boundary layer concentrations of ozone, CO, NO, and hydrocarbons measured by an experimental vessel cruising at the same location and time. Results suggest that surface sensing of DMS sources is feasible but only in regions and seasons where phytoplankton pigment is a meaningful marker for biogenic emissions.
|
|---|