Identification

Title

Summertime atmospheric boundary layer gradients of O2 and CO2 over the Southern Ocean

Abstract

We present airborne observations of the vertical gradient of atmospheric oxygen (delta(O-2/N-2)) and carbon dioxide (CO2) through the atmospheric boundary layer (BL) over the Drake Passage region of the Southern Ocean, during the O-2/N-2 Ratio and CO2 Airborne Southern Ocean Study, from 15 January to 29 February 2016. Gradients were predominately anticorrelated, with excesses of delta(O-2/N-2) and depletions of CO2 found within the boundary layer, relative to a mean reference height of 1.7 km. Through analysis of the molar ratio of the gradients (GR), the behavior of other trace gases measured in situ, and modeling experiments with the Community Earth System Model, we found that the main driver of gradients was air-sea exchange of O-2 and CO2 driven by biological processes, more so than solubility effects. An exception to this was in the eastern Drake Passage, where positive GRs were occasionally observed, likely due to the dominance of thermal forcing on the air-sea flux of both species. GRs were more spatially consistent than the magnitudes of the gradients, suggesting that GRs can provide integrated process constraints over broad spatial scales. Based on the model simulation within a domain bounded by 45 degrees S, 75 degrees S, 100 degrees W, and 45 degrees W, we show that the sampling density of the campaign was such that the observed mean GR (+/- standard error), -4.0 +/- 0.8 mol O-2 per mol CO2, was a reasonable proxy for both the mean GR and the mean molar ratio of air-sea fluxes of O-2 and CO2 during the O-2/N-2 Ratio and CO2 Airborne Southern Ocean Study.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d75b05nq

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2019-12-16T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact