Strong Southern Ocean carbon uptake evident in airborne observations
Matthew C. Long, Britton B. Stephens, Kathryn McKain, Colm Sweeney, Ralph F. Keeling, E. A. Kort, Eric J. Morgan, Jonathan Bent, Naveen Chandra, Frédéric Chevallier, R. Commane, Bruce C. Daube, Paul B. Krummel, Zoë Loh, Ingrid T. Luijkx, David R. Munro, Prabir K. Patra, Wouter Peters, Michel Ramonet, Christian Rödenbeck, Ann R. Stavert, Pieter P. Tans, Steven C. Wofsy
Abstract
Up in the air Understanding ocean-atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) fluxes in the Southern Ocean is necessary for quantifying the global CO 2 budget, but measurements in the harsh conditions there make collecting good data difficult, so a quantitative picture still is out of reach. Long et al . present measurements of atmospheric CO 2 concentrations made by aircraft and show that the annual net flux of carbon into the ocean south of 45°S is large, with stronger summertime uptake and less wintertime outgassing than other recent observations have indicated. —HJS