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Contribution of Sea‐State Dependent Bubbles to Air‐Sea Carbon Dioxide Fluxes
Author(s) -
Reichl B. G.,
Deike L.
Publication year - 2020
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 - 10.1029/2020gl087267
Subject(s) - flux (metallurgy) , sea state , environmental science , climatology , atmospheric sciences , carbon dioxide , atmosphere (unit) , wind speed , storm , oceanography , meteorology , geology , geography , ecology , materials science , metallurgy , biology
Breaking surface ocean waves produce bubbles that are important for air‐sea gas exchanges, particularly during high winds. In this study we estimate air‐sea CO 2 fluxes globally using a new approach that considers the surface wave contribution to gas fluxes. We estimate that 40% of the net air‐sea CO 2 flux is via bubbles, with annual, seasonal, and regional variability. When compared to traditional gas‐flux parameterization methods that consider the wind speed alone, we find high‐frequency (daily to weekly) differences in the predicted gas flux using the sea‐state dependent method at spatial scales related to atmospheric weather (10 to 100 km). Seasonal net differences in the air‐sea CO 2 flux due to the sea‐state dependence can exceed 20%, with the largest values associated with North Atlantic and North Pacific winter storms. These results confirm that bubbles are important for global gas‐flux dynamics and that sea‐state dependent parameterizations may improve performance of global coupled models.