Precipitation Effects on the Global Air-Sea CO2 Flux

Christopher J. Zappa, Ph.D.
Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory,
Columbia University

Abstract:

Atmosphere-ocean interactions play a crucial role in the regional and global budgets of biogeochemical trace gases and in the transport of volatile pollutants. A plethora of processes has been shown in individual studies to play varying roles in regulating air-sea gas fluxes, which continually work to adjust the balance of constituents in the upper ocean. Therefore, a better understanding of mechanisms controlling air-water gas exchange and ocean mixing is needed to improve model predictions of the spatial variability of air-sea fluxes.

Wind has been the predominant driver of gas exchange in the open ocean because it plays a central role in the generation of turbulence through the transfer of momentum to waves and currents. Rain also plays a significant role in the exchange of CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, through surface layer chemical dilution and via export of carbon from the atmosphere by wet deposition.