Interannual variability of the air-sea flux of oxygen in the North Atlantic
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Author(s)
McKinley, Galen A
Follows, Michael J
Marshall, John C
Date Issued
September 2000
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Citation
McKinley, Galen A., Michael J. Follows, and John Marshall. “Interannual Variability of the Air-Sea Flux of Oxygen in the North Atlantic.” Geophysical Research Letters 27.18 (2000): 2933–2936. © 2000 American Geophysical Union
Version
Final published version
Abstract
In studies using timeseries observations of atmospheric O[subscript 2]/N[subscript 2] to infer the fate of fossil fuel CO[subscript 2], it has been assumed that multi-year trends in observed O[subscript 2]/N[subscript 2] are insensitive to interannual variability in air-sea fluxes of oxygen. We begin to address the validity of this assumption by investigating the magnitude and mechanisms of interannual variability in the flux of oxygen across the sea surface using a North Atlantic biogeochemical model. The model, based on the MIT ocean general circulation model, captures the gross patterns and seasonal cycle of nutrients and oxygen within the basin. The air-sea oxygen flux exhibits significant interannual variability in the North Atlantic, with a standard deviation (0.36 mol m[superscript −2] y[superscript −1]) that is a large fraction of the mean (0.85 mol m[superscript −2] y[subscript −1]). This is primarily a consequence of variability in winter convection in the subpolar gyre.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1029/2000GL011492
