Southern Ocean and its Appetite for CarbonAmong the Earth’s oceans, the Southern Ocean is unique as
Southern Ocean and its Appetite for CarbonAmong the Earth’s oceans, the Southern Ocean is unique as it is unimpeded by continental landmasses. This enables the ocean to form a circular current that is driven by westerly winds around Antarctica and is also the largest ocean current on the planet. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current flows around the globe and connects the adjacent Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans resulting in complex interactions. These interactions create an overturning circulation that brings deep water to the surface where it exchanges gases with the atmosphere before it returns to depth. Furthermore, it has the potential to sequester (store for long period of time) carbon in the deep ocean, hence, providing a window into the deep ocean.So how much carbon is sequestered into the Southern Ocean? This question has puzzled oceanographers and is an important piece of information to stimulate into the Earth system models. The remoteness of the Southern Ocean has led to a paucity of observations that can be used to improve these models. To answer this question, researchers are planning on making 14 flights across the Southern Ocean from Punta Arenas, Chile. The modified Gulfstream V jet will be loaded with a suite of instruments that would measure the distribution of carbon dioxide and oxygen produced by marine microorganisms, aerosols, and cloud characteristics in the atmosphere. The jet will also use a Portable Remote Imaging Spectrometer (PRISM) to observe the color of the ocean – which indicates the type of phytoplankton growing in the water.This research will help to understand how the Southern Ocean affects global climate by storing or releasing carbon dioxide, water vapor and heat. Previous studies disagree about whether the ability of the Southern Ocean to absorb carbon dioxide is slowing down or speeding up. The ocean circulation in the Southern Ocean provides a major opportunity for the exchange of carbon between the deep ocean and the atmosphere. It is essential to know how much carbon dioxide the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems are going to take up in order to better predict the temperature in 50 years.NateImage Credit: Ed Dunes. http://bit.ly/1RJ6zE9Source:http://1.usa.gov/1lcfNtY -- source link
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