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Mean annual cycle of the air‐sea oxygen flux: A global view
Author(s) -
Najjar Raymond G.,
Keeling Ralph F.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
global biogeochemical cycles
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.512
H-Index - 187
eISSN - 1944-9224
pISSN - 0886-6236
DOI - 10.1029/1999gb900086
Subject(s) - outgassing , flux (metallurgy) , environmental science , climatology , oxygen , atmospheric sciences , extratropical cyclone , atmosphere (unit) , latitude , annual cycle , oceanography , new production , nutrient , geology , meteorology , chemistry , geography , organic chemistry , geodesy , phytoplankton
A global monthly‐mean climatology of the air‐sea oxygen flux is presented and discussed. The climatology is based on the ocean oxygen climatology of Najjar and Keeling [1997] and wind speeds derived from a meteorological analysis center. Seasonal variations are characterized by outgassing of oxygen during spring and summer and ingassing of oxygen during fall and winter, a pattern consistent with thermal and biological forcing of the air‐sea oxygen flux. The annual mean flux pattern is characterized by ingassing at high latitudes and the tropics and outgassing in middle latitudes. The air‐sea oxygen flux is shown to exhibit patterns that agree well with patterns seen in a marine primary productivity climatology, in model generated air‐sea O 2 fluxes, in estimates of remineralization in the shallow aphotic zone based on seasonal oxygen variations, in observed seasonal nutrient‐temperature relationships, and in independent estimates of meridional oxygen transport in the Atlantic ocean. We also find that extratropical mixed layer new production during the spring‐summer period, computed from biological seasonal net outgassing of oxygen, is equivalent to the production of 4.5–5.6 Gt C, much lower than previous estimates based on atmospheric O 2 /N 2 measurements.