Collaborative Research: Global Assessment and Synthesis of Data Based Estimates of Anthropogenic CO2 in the Ocean

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

ABSTRACT OCE-0137274 / OCE-0136617 / OCE-0136897 The ocean is second only to the atmosphere as a sink for anthropogenic CO2. Over the last decade, our ability to quantify the oceanic sink using observations has dramatically increased. The improvement derives from two major factors. The first is the JGOFS/WOCE/OACES global ocean carbon survey, which produced the first high-quality, global-scale inorganic carbon data set. The second is the continuing development of improved techniques to estimate anthropogenic carbon from new measurements. Still, significant uncertainties remain regarding estimation of the spatial distribution of anthropogenic CO2 uptake and storage in the sea. This uncertainty derives from the fact that the task of unambiguously discerning the natural and anthropogenic CO2 signals is far from trivial. The estimates require assumptions that are difficult to verify and whose uncertainties are hard to estimate. Better quantification of the spatial storage pattern and the associated uncertainties is required to assess the value of oceanic data constraints on the global carbon budget and ocean model evaluations, such as those undertaken by the Ocean Carbon-cycle Model Intercomparison Project (OCMIP). On this project, a team of researchers from the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Washington, and Princeton University will perform global analysis of observation-based estimates of the oceanic storage of anthropogenic carbon dioxide. Their goal is to assess a range of ocean data to provide a well-constrained estimate of the oceanic anthropogenic CO2 distribution. Particular emphasis will be placed on the estimation of uncertainties and differences between the several approaches. This work would depend upon and extend results from recently completed and ongoing research that these investigators have been involved in as part of the Synthesis and Modeling Project of the U.S. Joint Global Ocean Flux Study.