Marine Science Faculty Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-2021
Keywords
air-sea CO2 flux, new observing technology, Southern Ocean CO2 sink, surface ocean pCO2
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL091748
Abstract
Remote, harsh conditions of the Southern Ocean challenge our ability to observe the region’s influence on the climate system. Southern Ocean air-sea CO2 flux estimates have significant uncertainty due to the reliance on limited ship-dependent observations in combination with satellite-based and interpolated data products. We utilize a new approach, making direct measurements of air-sea CO2, wind speed, and surface ocean properties on an Uncrewed Surface Vehicle (USV). In 2019, the USV completed the first autonomous circumnavigation of Antarctica providing hourly CO2 flux estimates. Using this unique data set to constrain potential error in different measurements and propagate those through the CO2 flux calculation, we find that different wind speed products and sampling frequencies have the largest impact on CO2 flux estimates with biases that range from −4% to +20%. These biases and poorly constrained interannual variability could account for discrepancies between different approaches to estimating Southern Ocean CO2 uptake.
Rights Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Geophysical Research Letters, v. 48, issue 3, art. e2020GL091748
Scholar Commons Citation
Sutton, A. J.; Williams, Nancy L.; and Tilbrook, B., "Constraining Southern Ocean CO2 Flux Uncertainty Using Uncrewed Surface Vehicle Observations" (2021). Marine Science Faculty Publications. 1340.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/1340
