HR: 1330h
AN: A52B-0793    [PDF]
TI: Meridional Gradients in Atmospheric $O_2$ and $CO_2$.
AU: * Battle, M O
EM: mbattle@bowdoin.edu
AF: Bowdoin College, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, 8800 College Station, Brunswick, ME 04011 United States
AU: Bender, M L
EM: bender@princeton.edu
AF: Princeton University, Dept. of Geosciences, Guyot Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544 United States
AU: Hendricks, M B
EM: mhendric@princeton.edu
AF: Princeton University, Dept. of Geosciences, Guyot Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544 United States
AU: Ho, D T
EM: david@ldeo.columbia.edu
AF: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964 United States
AU: Simonds, C
EM: csimonds@ahh.com
AF: Adams, Harkness & Hill, Inc., 60 State Street, Boston, MA 02109 United States
AU: Mika, R
EM: rmika@princeton.edu
AF: Princeton University, Dept. of Geosciences, Guyot Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544 United States
AU: Tans, P P
EM: pieter.tans@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/CMDL, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305 United States
AU: Gruber, N
EM: ngruber@igpp.ucla.edu
AF: University of California, Los Angeles, Institute of Geophysics & Planetary Sciences Box 951567, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567 United States
AU: Mikaloff Fletcher, S
EM: fletcher@igpp.ucla.edu
AF: University of California, Los Angeles, Institute of Geophysics & Planetary Sciences Box 951567, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567 United States
AU: Keeling, R F
EM: rkeeling@ucsd.edu
AF: Scripps Institute of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 90293-0244 United States
AB: Measurements of atmospheric $O_2$ and $CO_2$ can be combined to create a "tracer" referred to as Atmospheric Potential Oxygen (APO) [Stephens et al. 1998]. APO is unaltered by terrestrial photosynthesis and respiration, and influenced only slightly by fossil fuel combustion. Consequently, measurements of APO have the potential to provide unique constraints on models of oceanic circulation and biology, atmospheric circulation and air-sea gas exchange. We present here the first long-term measurements of atmospheric oxygen from the equatorial region, building upon the initial measurements of Stephens [1999]. When combined with our extra-tropical observations, we find that the meridional gradient in APO exhibits the gross features we expect from the combined influences of ocean processes, fossil fuel combustion and atmospheric transport: an interhemispheric gradient that changes sign seasonally. We then use these data to examine the equatorial "bulge" in APO predicted by ocean models [Stephens et al, 1998, Gruber et al. 2001]. This bulge in APO (high values of APO, relative to the extratropical regions) results from large fluxes of both $O_2$ and $CO_2$ from the ocean to the atmosphere due to equatorial upwelling.
DE: 0312 Air/sea constituent fluxes (3339, 4504)
DE: 1615 Biogeochemical processes (4805)
DE: 3339 Ocean/atmosphere interactions (0312, 4504)
DE: 4532 General circulation
DE: 4806 Carbon cycling
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting