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Direct determination of the air‐sea CO 2 gas transfer velocity in Arctic sea ice regions
Author(s) -
Prytherch John,
Brooks Ian M.,
Crill Patrick M.,
Thornton Brett F.,
Salisbury Dominic J.,
Tjernström Michael,
Anderson Leif G.,
Geibel Marc C.,
Humborg Christoph
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2017gl073593
Subject(s) - sea ice , arctic ice pack , arctic , sea ice thickness , sea ice growth processes , environmental science , drift ice , geology , oceanography , atmospheric sciences
The Arctic Ocean is an important sink for atmospheric CO 2 . The impact of decreasing sea ice extent and expanding marginal ice zones on Arctic air‐sea CO 2 exchange depends on the rate of gas transfer in the presence of sea ice. Sea ice acts to limit air‐sea gas exchange by reducing contact between air and water but is also hypothesized to enhance gas transfer rates across surrounding open‐water surfaces through physical processes such as increased surface‐ocean turbulence from ice‐water shear and ice‐edge form drag. Here we present the first direct determination of the CO 2 air‐sea gas transfer velocity in a wide range of Arctic sea ice conditions. We show that the gas transfer velocity increases near linearly with decreasing sea ice concentration. We also show that previous modeling approaches overestimate gas transfer rates in sea ice regions.