Synthesis and interpretation of the NOAA/DOE Global CO₂ Survey Data

NOAA/DOE OACES, 36 months
 

PROJECT SUMMARY

The recently completed DOE/NOAA cosponsored global carbon survey produced over an order of magnitude more high-quality carbon measurements than previous survey efforts.  These data provide an important asset to the scientific community investigating carbon cycling in the oceans.  Most of the data have been reported to national archive facilities, but have not been synthesized into a unified, internally consistent global data set.  The central objective of this proposal is to generate that unified data set and to determine the global distribution and inventories of both natural and anthropogenic carbon species. These estimates will be used to infer the rate of anthropogenic CO₂ uptake in the oceans and to evaluate numerical ocean carbon models.  These estimates also provide an important benchmark against which future observational studies will be compared.

To accomplish this task, a number of additional products will be generated which will directly benefit the scientific community. The first will be improved global estimates of thermocline ventilation rates and chlorofluorocarbon based watermass ages.  We will also provide empirical equations for estimating surface carbon distributions from conservative parameters and a field-based evaluation of the carbon dissociation constants.  A careful examination of the new data set will allow us to evaluate optimal sampling strategies for the future and an evaluation of the technology necessary to properly address remaining questions on the cycling of carbon in the oceans.  This work will directly address the OACES and DOE goals of improving our ability to observe, understand, predict, and respond to changes in the global environment.
 

Christopher L. Sabine
Dep. of Geological and Geophisical Sciences
Princeton University Guyot Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544-4709
tel: (609) 258-6899
fax: (609) 258-1274
sabine@geo.princeton.edu

Robert M. Key
Program in Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences
Department of Geosciences, Guyot Hall
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544-1003
tel: (609) 258-3595
fax: (609) 258-1274
key@geo.princeton.edu

Richard A. Feely
NOAA/PMEL
7600 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115
tel : (206) 526-6214
fax : (206) 526-6744
feely@pmel.noaa.gov

John L. Bullister
NOAA/PMEL
7600 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115
tel : (206) 526-6741
fax : (206) 526
bullister@pmel.noaa.gov

Frank J. Millero
RSMAS/MAC
University of Miami
4600 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, FL 33149
tel: (305) 361-4707
fax: (305) 361-4144
fmillero@rsmas.miami.edu

Rik Wanninkhof
NOAA/AOML
4301 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, FL 33149
tel: (305) 361-4379
fax: (305) 361-4392
wanninkhof@aoml.noaa.gov

Dr. Tsung-Hung Peng
NOAA/AOML
4301 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, FL 33149
tel: (305) 361-4380
fax: (305) 361-4392
peng@aoml.noaa.gov

Alexander Kozyr
Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center
The University of Tennessee
Pellissippi Research Facility
10521 Research Drive, Suite 100
Knoxville, TN 37932
tel: (423) 974-8408
fax: (423) 974-8448
alex@utpel033.prg.utk.edu