Anomalous chlorofluorocarbon uptake by mesoscale eddies in the Drake Passage region
Citable URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/7287As published
https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JC010292DOI
10.1002/2014JC010292Abstract
The role of mesoscale eddies in the uptake of anthropogenic chlorofluorocarbon-11 (CFC-11) gas is investigated with a 1/20° eddy-resolving numerical ocean model of a region of the Southern Ocean. With a relatively fast air-sea equilibrium time scale (about a month), the air-sea CFC-11 flux quickly responds to the changes in the mixed layer CFC-11 partial pressure (pCFC-11). At the mesoscale, significant correlations are observed between pCFC-11 anomaly, anomalies in sea surface temperature (SST), net heat flux, and mixed layer depth. An eddy-centric analysis of the simulated CFC-11 field suggests that anticyclonic warm-core eddies generate negative pCFC-11 anomalies and cyclonic cold-core eddies generate positive anomalies of pCFC-11. Surface pCFC-11 is modulated by mixed layer dynamics in addition to CFC-11 air-sea fluxes. A negative cross correlation between mixed layer depth and surface pCFC-11 anomalies is linked to higher CFC-11 uptake in anticyclones and lower CFC-11 uptake in cyclones, especially in winter. An almost exact asymmetry in the air-sea CFC-11 flux between cyclones and anticyclones is found.
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Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2015. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 120 (2015): 1065–1078, doi:10.1002/2014JC010292.
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Suggested Citation
Article: Song, Hajoon, Marshall, John C., Gaube, Peter, McGillicuddy, Dennis J., "Anomalous chlorofluorocarbon uptake by mesoscale eddies in the Drake Passage region", Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 120 (2015): 1065–1078, DOI:10.1002/2014JC010292, https://hdl.handle.net/1912/7287Related items
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