Oceanic uptake of CO2 in CarbonTracker is computed using air-sea
differences in partial pressure of CO2 inferred from ocean inversions,
combined with a gas transfer velocity computed from wind speeds in the
atmospheric transport model.
The long-term mean air-sea fluxes, and the uncertainties associated
with them, derive from the ocean interior inversions reported in
Jacobson et al. [2007]. These ocean inversion flux (OIF) estimates
are composed of separate preindustrial (natural) and anthropogenic
flux inversions based on the methods described in Gloor et al. [2003]
and biogeochemical interpretations of Gruber, Sarmiento, and Stocker
[1996]. The uptake of anthropogenic CO2 by the ocean is assumed to
increase in proportion to atmospheric CO2 levels, consistent with
estimates from ocean carbon models.
For CarbonTracker Europe, contemporary pCO2 fields were computed by
summing the preindustrial and anthropogenic flux components from
inversions using five different configurations of the Princeton/GFDL
MOM3 ocean general circulation model [Pacanowski and Gnanadesikan,
1998], then dividing by a gas transfer velocity computed from the
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA40
reanalysis. There are two small differences in first-guess fluxes in
this computation from those reported in Jacobson et al. [2007].
First, the five OIF estimates all used Takahashi et al. [2002] pCO2
estimates to provide high-resolution patterning of flux within
inversion regions (the alternative "forward" model patterns were not
used). To good approximation, this choice only affects the spatial
and temporal distribution of flux within each of the 30 ocean
inversion regions, not the magnitude of the estimated flux. Second,
wind speed differences between the ERA40 product used in the offline
analysis and the ECMWF operational model used in the online
CarbonTracker analysis result in small deviations from the OIF
estimates.
Gas transfer velocity in CarbonTracker is parameterized as a quadratic
function of wind speed following Wanninkhof [1992], using the
formulation for instantaneous winds. Gas exchange is computed every 3
hours using wind speeds from the ECMWF operational model as
represented by the TM5 atmospheric transport model.
Other than the smooth trend in
anthropogenic flux assumed by the OIF results, interannual variability
(IAV) in the first guess ocean flux comes entirely from wind speed
effects on the gas transfer velocity. This is because the ocean
inversions retrieve only a long-term mean and smooth trend.
The initial release of CarbonTracker (2007A) used climatogical estimates
of CO2 partial pressure in surface waters from Takahashi et al. [2002]
to compute a first-guess air-sea flux. This air-sea pCO2
disequilibrium was modulated by a surface barometric pressure
correction before being multiplied by a gas-transfer coefficient to
yield a flux. Starting with CarbonTracker 2007B and in this CarbonTracker Europe release, the air-sea
pCO2 disequilibrium
is imposed from analysis of the OIF results, with short-term flux
variability derived from the atmospheric model wind speeds via the gas
transfer coefficient. The barometric pressure correction has been
removed so that climatological high- and low-pressure cells do not
bias the long-term means of the first guess fluxes. In either method,
the first-guess fluxes have no interannual variability (IAV) due to
pCO2 changes, such as those that occur in the tropical eastern Pacific
during an El Niño. In
CarbonTracker, this flux IAV must be inferred from atmospheric CO2
signals.
Air-sea transfer is inhibited by the presence of sea ice, and for this
work fluxes are scaled by the daily sea ice fraction in each gridbox
provided by the ECMWF forecast data.
The first-guess fluxes described here are subject to scaling during the CarbonTracker optimization process, in which atmospheric CO2 mole fraction observations are combined with transport simulated by the atmospheric model to infer flux signals. In this process, signals of terrestrial flux in atmospheric CO2 distribution can be erroneously interpreted as being caused by oceanic fluxes. This flux "aliasing" or "leakage" is evident in some regions as a change in the shape of the seasonal cycle of air-sea flux. Differences between CarbonTracker posterior air-sea fluxes and those of the OIF prior fluxes are minor, but do constitute an issue that we will be investigating in the future.
3. Further Reading
- NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL)
- Ocean Acidification
- Caldeira, K., and M. E. Wickett (2003), Anthropogenic carbon and ocean pH, Nature, 425365-365.
- Gloor, M., N. Gruber, J. Sarmiento, C. L. Sabine, R. A. Feely, and C. Rödenbeck (2003), A first estimate of present and preindustrial air-sea CO2 flux patterns based on ocean interior carbon measurements and models, Geophysical Research Letters, 30, , 10.1029/2002GL015594.
- Gruber, N., J. L. Sarmiento, and T. F. Stocker (1996), An improved method for detecting anthropogenic CO2 in the oceans, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 10, , 809-837.
- Jacobson, A. R., N. Gruber, J. L. Sarmiento, M. Gloor, and S. E. Mikaloff Fletcher (2007), A joint atmosphere-ocean inversion for surface fluxes of carbon dioxide: I. Methods and global-scale fluxes, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 21, doi:10.1029/2005GB002556.
- Pacanowski, R. C., and A. Gnanadesikan (1998), Transient response in a z-level ocean model that resolves topography with partial cells, Monthly Weather Review, 126, 3248--3270.
- Sabine, C. L., R. A. Feely, N. Gruber, R. M. Key, K. Lee, J. L. Bullister, R. Wanninkhof, C. S. Wong, D. W. R. Wallace, B. Tilbrook, F. J. Millero, T. H. Peng, A. Kozyr, T. Ono, and A. F. Rios (2004), The oceanic sink for anthropogenic CO2, Science, 305, 367-371.
- Takahashi, T., S. C. Sutherland, C. Sweeney, A. P. N. Metzl, B. Tilbrook, N. Bates, R. Wanninkhof, R. A. Feely, C. Sabine, J. Olafsson, and Y. Nojiri (2002), Global air-sea CO2 flux based on climatological surface ocean pCO2, and seasonal biological and temperature effects, Deep-Sea Research II, 49, , 1601--1622.
- Wanninkhof, R. (1992), Relationship between wind speed and gas exchange over the ocean, Journal of Geophysical Research, 97, 7373--7382.