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Adiabatic reduction of circulation‐related CO 2 air‐sea flux biases in a North Atlantic carbon‐cycle model
Author(s) -
Eden Carsten,
Oschlies Andreas
Publication year - 2006
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 - 10.1029/2005gb002521
Subject(s) - biogeochemical cycle , environmental science , north atlantic deep water , atmospheric sciences , flux (metallurgy) , carbon cycle , alkalinity , climatology , ocean current , oceanography , carbon dioxide , thermohaline circulation , geology , chemistry , ecosystem , ecology , organic chemistry , environmental chemistry , biology
Physical transport processes of carbon, alkalinity, heat, and nutrients to a large extent control the partial pressure of CO 2 at the sea surface and hence the oceanic carbon uptake. Using a state‐of‐the‐art biogeochemical model of the North Atlantic at eddy‐permitting resolution we show that biases in the simulated circulation generate errors in air‐sea fluxes of CO 2 which are still larger than those associated with the considerable uncertainties in parameterizations of the air‐sea gas exchange. A semiprognostic correction method that adiabatically corrects the momentum equations while conserving water mass properties and tracers is shown to yield a more realistic description of the carbon fluxes into the North Atlantic at little additional computational cost. Owing to upper ocean flow patterns in better agreement with observations, simulated CO 2 uptake in the corrected regional model is larger by 25% compared to the uncorrected model.