ALBERT

Description: The rate of reaction of OH with CS2 to form OCS by reaction (1) has been measured through observation of O14CS following 254 nm equation image photolysis of mixtures of H2O2 with 14CS2. The OH concentrations have been monitored through simultaneous measurement in the same cell of either (a) the oxidation of CO to CO2, or (b) the removal of a hydrocarbon such as C3H8 or iso-C4H10. The upper limit for the formation of OCS based on (a) corresponds to a rate constant k1 〈 0.3 × 10−14 cm³ molecule−1 sec−1. Other chemical reactions in the system have led to the formation of both 14CO and 14CO2, indicating the existence of a complex combination of reactions such that the observed O14CS need not have been formed by (1). The rate of reaction (1) is sufficiently slow that it is neither an important atmospheric sink for CS2 nor an important source for atmospheric OCS. The reaction of OH with OCS has not been measured in these experiments, but by analogy with k1 it is probably not an important atmospheric sink for OCS nor an important source of SO2.

Description: Dimethylsulfide (DMS) atmospheric and oceanic concentrations and eddy covariance air/sea fluxes were measured over the N. Atlantic Ocean during July 2007 from Iceland to Woods Hole, MA, USA. Seawater DMS levels north of 55 degrees N ranged from 3 to 17 nM, with variability related to the satellite-derived distributions of coccoliths and to a lesser extent, chlorophyll. For the most intense bloom region southwest of Iceland, DMS air/sea fluxes were as high as 300 mu mol m(-2) d(-1), larger than current model estimates. The observations imply that gas exchange coefficients in this region are significantly greater than those estimated using most gas transfer parameterizations. South of 55 degrees N, DMS levels were lower and the gas transfer coefficients were similar to those observed in other regions of the ocean. The data suggest that DMS emissions from the bloom region may be significantly larger than current estimates. The anomalous gas exchange coefficients likely reflect strong near-surface, water column DMS gradients influenced by physical and biological processes

Description: A synthesis is provided of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) and phosphorus (DOP) distributions over the Atlantic Ocean based upon field data from eight recent transects, six meridional between 50°N and 50°S and two zonal at 24° and 36°N. Over the entire tropical and subtropical Atlantic, DON and DOP provide the dominant contributions to total nitrogen and phosphorus pools for surface waters above the thermocline. Elevated DON and DOP concentrations (〉5 and 〉0.2 μ mol L−1, respectively) occur in surface waters on the eastern side of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre and equatorial sides of both the North and South Atlantic subtropical gyres, while particularly low concentrations of DOP (〈0.05 μ mol L−1) occur over the northern flank of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre along 36°N. This distribution is consistent with organic nutrients formed at the gyre margins supporting carbon export as they are redistributed via the gyre circulation. The effect of DON and DOP transport and cycling on export production is examined in an eddy‐permitting, coupled physical and nutrient model integrated for 40 years: organic nutrients are produced in the upwelling zones off North Africa and transferred laterally into the gyre interior, facilitated in part by the mesoscale eddy circulation, as well as fluxed northward from the tropics as part of the overturning circulation. Inputs of semilabile DON and DOP to the tropical and subtropical Atlantic Ocean play an important role in sustaining up to typically 40 and 70% of the modeled particulate N and P export, particularly on the eastern and equatorward sides of the subtropical gyres.

Description: We combine estimates of the surface mass balance, SMB, of the Greenland ice sheet for years 1958 to 2007 with measurements of the temporal variability in ice discharge, D, to deduce the total ice sheet mass balance. During that time period, we find a robust correlation (R2 = 0.83) between anomalies in SMB and in D, which we use to reconstruct a continuous series of total ice sheet mass balance. We find that the ice sheet was losing 110 ± 70 Gt/yr in the 1960s, 30 ± 50 Gt/yr or near balance in the 1970s–1980s, and 97 ± 47 Gt/yr in 1996 increasing rapidly to 267 ± 38 Gt/yr in 2007. Multi‐year variations in ice discharge, themselves related to variations in SMB, cause 60 ± 20% more variation in total mass balance than SMB, and therefore dominate the ice sheet mass budget.

Description: We report the first simultaneous eddy covariance flux measurements of CO2 and dimethylsulfide (DMS) over the open ocean for two North Atlantic cruises. After normalization for Schmidt number, the two gases give essentially identical gas transfer coefficients and wind speed dependences for the wind speed range 2–10 ms−1. The data indicate a linear relationship between the gas transfer coefficient and mean wind speed, with measured gas transfer coefficients slightly above the Wanninkhof (1992) parameterization, particularly at low wind speeds.