Identification

Title

An atmospheric constraint on the seasonal air‐sea exchange of oxygen and heat in the extratropics

Abstract

The air-sea exchange of oxygen (O-2) is driven by changes in solubility, biological activity, and circulation. The total air-sea exchange of O-2 has been shown to be closely related to the air-sea exchange of heat on seasonal timescales, with the ratio of the seasonal flux of O-2 to heat varying with latitude, being higher in the extratropics and lower in the subtropics. This O-2/heat ratio is both a fundamental biogeochemical property of air-sea exchange and a convenient metric for testing earth system models. Current estimates of the O-2/heat flux ratio rely on sparse observations of dissolved O-2, leaving it fairly unconstrained. From a model ensemble we show that the ratio of the seasonal amplitude of two atmospheric tracers, atmospheric potential oxygen (APO) and the argon-to-nitrogen ratio (Ar/O-2), exhibits a close relationship to the O-2/heat ratio of the extratropics (40-70 degrees). The amplitude ratio, A(APO)/A(ArN2), is relatively constant within the extratropics of each hemisphere due to the zonal mixing of the atmosphere. A(APO)/A(ArN2) is not sensitive to atmospheric transport, as most of the observed spatial variability in the seasonal amplitude of delta APO is compensated by similar variations in delta(Ar/N-2). From the relationship between O-2/heat and A(APO)/A(ArN2) in the model ensemble, we determine that the atmospheric observations suggest hemispherically distinct O-2/heat flux ratios of 3.3 +/- 0.3 and 4.7 +/- 0.8 nmol J(-1) between 40 and 70 degrees in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres respectively, providing a useful constraint for O-2 and heat air-sea fluxes in earth system models and observation-based data products.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7pn992x

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

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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

2021-08-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

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Conformity

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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