Over the past decade, measurements of atmospheric CO2, O2, and related tracers on a series of airborne research campaigns have enabled new insights into fundamental properties of the global carbon cycle. 

AI23A-01: Atmospheric Constraints on Southern Ocean Air-Sea CO2 Fluxes: Results from the ORCAS Campaign, Oral Presentation

11.4 Constraints on Southern Ocean CO2 Fluxes and Seasonality from Atmospheric Vertical Gradients Observed on Multiple Airborne Campaigns, Oral Presentation

A24C-07: The importance of the southern ocean on distributions and lifetimes of non-methane organic compounds, Oral Presentation

A31L-06: AutoGNI, the Robot Under the Aircraft Floor: An Automated System for Sampling Giant Aerosol Particles by Impaction in the Free Airstream Outside a Research Aircraft, Oral Presentation

A13K-04: Relationship between macroscopic and microphysical properties for mixed-phase and ice clouds over the Southern Ocean in ORCAS campaign, Oral Presentation

Improvement in high -latitude retrievals on the ORCAS campaign

The seasonal exchange of CO2 with the Southern Ocean is driven by strong opposing thermal and biological forces. Climatological air-sea CO2 flux estimates based on temporally and spatially sparse pCO2 measurements in the region predict seasonal exchange in phase with biological forcing but relatively muted in amplitude. In contrast, many Earth system models predict large seasonal cycles in Southern Ocean air-sea CO2 flux, in phase with biological forcing in some models but with opposite phase in others. Because air-sea O2 exchanges are positively correlated for thermal and biological influences, and not affected by buffering chemistry, seasonal air-sea O2 fluxes are considerably larger than their CO2 counterparts. Consequently, atmospheric O2 gradients are relatively unaffected by remote terrestrial and fossil influences and O2 fluxes are more robustly constrained by atmospheric measurements. Estimates of air-sea O2 fluxes validated against atmospheric O2, combined with O2:CO2 ratios in observed atmospheric gradients, can be used to constrain the magnitude and drivers of seasonal CO2 fluxes.

Adaptation of a commercial greenhouse gas analyser for airborne measurements with expanded altitude range and application on the ORCAS and ATom campaigns, Kathryn McKain
[GGMT_McKain]

"Tropospheric Gradients of CO2 Over the Southern Ocean," Eric Morgan, Britton Stephens, Kathryn McKain, Matthew Long, Jonathan Bent, Colm Sweeney, Ralph Keeling.
PDF: Morgan_ICDC

Airborne constraints on Southern Ocean carbon and oxygen fluxes: implications for magnitude of exchange and the importance of intense, Eric Kort
Powerpoint: Kort SO

Atmospheric constraints on Southern Ocean carbon exchange, Andy Jacobson
Powerpoint: Jacobson SO

 

Southern Ocean Workshop Posters

"Flux estimates from Lagrangian Flights over Drake Passage and the Patagonian Shelf," Martin Hoecker-Martinez, Eric A. Kort, Matthew C. Long, Britton B. Stephens, Eric Apel, Colm Sweeney, Rebecca Hornbrook, Kathryn McKain, Alan Hills.

"Large-scale vertical gradients of atmospheric trace gases to constrain air-sea CO2 fluxes in the Southern Ocean," Kathryn McKain, Colm Sweeney, Matt Long, Britt Stephens, Elliot Atlas, Prabir Patra, David Munroe, Eric Kort, Ralph Keeling.

OS43B-2052: Southern Ocean Zonal Scale Summertime Oxygen Outgassing and Carbon Dioxide Ingassing - Poster

OS43B-2046: Evidence that Palmer Station Antarctica seasonal O2 and CO2 cycles understate regional marine boundary layer means - Poster

OS43B-2036: Trace Gas Distributions and Correlations Observed In The Southern Ocean Atmosphere During the ORCAS Mission - Poster

A42F-07: Microphysical and macrophysical characteristics of ice and mixed-phase clouds compared between in-situ observations from the NSF ORCAS campaign and the NCAR Community Atmospheric Model - Presentation