A compilation of dissolved noble gas and N2/Ar ratio measurements collected from 1999-2016 in locations spanning the globe

Abstract

Inert gases dissolved in the ocean are powerful tracers of the impact of physical processes on gases, particularly air-sea gas exchange (by both diffusive and bubble-meditated processes), temperature change, atmospheric pressure variation, mixing between different water masses, and ice processes. We have compiled a global ocean database of dissolved neon, argon, and krypton measurements, supplemented by helium, xenon, and nitrogen/argon (N2/Ar) ratios in some locations. Samples were collected on board multiple research cruises spanning the period 1999 through 2016 and analyzed by mass spectrometry at four different shore-based laboratories (University of Victoria, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, University of Washington, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography). For a complete list of measurements, refer to the supplemental document 'Field_names.pdf', and a full dataset description is included in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: http://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/743867