Open AccessImpact of an artificial surfactant release on air‐sea gas fluxes during Deep Ocean Gas Exchange Experiment II
Author(s) -
Salter M. E.,
UpstillGoddard R. C.,
Nightingale P. D.,
Archer S. D.,
Blomquist B.,
Ho D. T.,
Huebert B.,
Schlosser P.,
Yang M.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: oceans
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2011jc007023
Subject(s) - pulmonary surfactant , environmental science , wind speed , tracer , oceanography , range (aeronautics) , carbon dioxide , geology , chemistry , atmospheric sciences , materials science , physics , biochemistry , organic chemistry , nuclear physics , composite material
During the 2007 UK SOLAS Deep Ocean Gas Exchange Experiment in the northeast Atlantic Ocean, we conducted the first ever study of the effect of a deliberately released surfactant (oleyl alcohol) on gas transfer velocities ( k w ) in the open ocean. Exchange rates were estimated with the 3 He/SF 6 dual tracer technique and from measured sea‐to‐air DMS fluxes and surface water concentrations. A total of seven k w estimates derived from 3 He/SF 6 were made, two of which were deemed to be influenced by the surfactant. These exhibited suppression from ∼5% to 55% at intermediate wind speeds ( U 10 ) in the range 7.2–10.7 m s −1 . Similarly, k w determined from DMS data ( k DMS ) was also depressed by the surfactant; suppression ranged from ∼39% at 5.0 m s −1 to ∼24% at 10.8 m s −1 . Surfactant thus has the potential to measurably suppress gas exchange rates even at moderate to high wind speeds.