Examination of the Oceanic Uptake of Anthropogenic CO2 and Other Trace Gases using Multiple Tracer Relationships

Princeton University, Princeton NJ

Investigators

Abstract

ABSTRACT OCE-0097316 A major achievement of the last decade of oceanic observations by the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) and World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) has been the dramatic improvement in our ability to use observations to estimate the oceanic inventory of anthropogenic carbon. This improvement has been driven both by increased data and by the development of improved techniques for analyzing the observations. An important role has been played by the rapid development of ocean general circulation models that are now being used routinely to do tracer simulations and provide estimates of anthropogenic carbon uptake. However, despite the great progress that has been made, there remain many important issues that need to be resolved. In this project, researchers at Princeton University will conduct model sensitivity studies to examine several hypotheses for model differences. They would make use of measurements from the JGOFS and WOCE surveys to determine which model gives a more realistic simulation, and to improve estimates of the oceanic uptake and storage of anthropogenic CO2, bomb radiocarbon, and chlorofluorocarbons (CFC). The goal is to advance both the development of reliable ocean models and the estimation of oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO2 from observations with the aim of improving estimates of the oceanic carbon sink and our understanding of the ocean carbon cycle. First, the team plans to examine model simulated tracer-tracer relationships of anthropogenic CO2, bomb 14C, and CFCs to evaluate aspects of model physics that believed to be important in determining tracer distributions. They will then attempt to improve the estimates of anthropogenic CO2 inventories by making use of the model simulations in conjunction with observations to critically examine ways of separating the anthropogenic CO2 from the background total CO2 and by exploring alternative methods using the distributions of CFCs, bomb 14C, and CCl4. A coordinated examination of these tracers that historically have been examined in relative isolation promises a better understanding anthropogenic CO2, bomb 14 C, CFCs, and CCl4 uptake in ocean models and in the real ocean.