Southern Ocean Air-Sea Carbon Fluxes from Aircraft Observations: Modeling Datasets

The Southern Ocean plays an important role in determining atmospheric CO2, yet estimates of air-sea CO2 flux for the region diverge widely. We constrain Southern Ocean air-sea CO2 exchange by relating fluxes to horizontal and vertical CO2 gradients in atmospheric transport models and then apply atmospheric observations of these gradients to estimate fluxes. Aircraft-based measurements of the vertical atmospheric CO2 gradient provide robust flux constraints. We find an annual-mean flux of –0.55±0.23 Pg C yr–1 (net uptake) south of 45°S during 2009–2018. This is consistent with the mean of atmospheric-inversion estimates and surface-ocean pCO2-based products, but our data indicate stronger annual-mean uptake than suggested by recent interpretations of profiling-float observations.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5065/fepv-0z52

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GCMD Science Keywords

• Atmosphere > Atmospheric Chemistry > Carbon And Hydrocarbon Compounds > Carbon Dioxide
• Oceans > Ocean Chemistry > Carbon Dioxide

GCMD Platform Types

• Other > Models > Cesm > Ncar Community Earth System Model

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• application/gzip
• text/plain

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Matthew Long
UCAR/NCAR - Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory
mclong@ucar.edu

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GDEX Curator
UCAR/NCAR - GDEX
datahelp@ucar.edu

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