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Reconstructing the time history of the air‐sea CO 2 disequilibrium and its rate of change in the eastern subpolar North Atlantic, 1972–1989
Author(s) -
Omar Abdirahman M.,
Olsen Are
Publication year - 2006
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 - 10.1029/2005gl025425
Subject(s) - advection , disequilibrium , geology , oceanography , environmental science , atmosphere (unit) , surface water , growth rate , carbon dioxide , north atlantic deep water , climatology , atmospheric sciences , deep water , meteorology , geography , chemistry , medicine , physics , geometry , mathematics , organic chemistry , environmental engineering , ophthalmology , thermodynamics
This study determines the temporal changes of wintertime surface ocean partial pressure of CO 2 (pCO 2 SW ) in the eastern subpolar North Atlantic (esNA) (50–64°N; 32–10°W) by using data of carbon‐system parameters and chlorofluorocarbon‐12 acquired in 1993. Wintertime pCO 2 SW and its temporal trend from early 1970s through to the late 1980s were reconstructed through the application of a back‐calculation method that isolates surface variations which have been transmitted to the ocean interior during the formation of Subpolar Mode Water. Our computations suggest a pCO 2 SW growth rate (3 μatm/yr) which is twice as large as that of atmospheric pCO 2 , 1.47 μatm/yr. The sensitivity of the estimated pCO 2 SW growth rate to remineralization ratios as well as to the CFC‐12‐derived ages is discussed. Cooling and northward advection of surface water equilibrated with the increasing atmospheric CO 2 is suggested as the process responsible for the excessive pCO 2 SW growth rate.