A Surface Ocean CO2 Reference Network, SOCONET and Associated Marine Boundary Layer CO2 Measurements

Rik Wanninkhof,Nicholas R Bates,Leticia Barbero,Denis Pierrot,Ute Schuster,Maciej Telszewski,Tobias Steinhoff,Kim Currie,Mario Hoppema,Kathy Tedesco,Gregor Rehder,Parvadha Suntharalingam,Bronte Tilbrook,Akihiko Murata,Penelope A Pickers,Masao Ishii,Richard A Feely,Siv K Lauvset,Nicolas Metzl,Are Olsen,Taro Takahashi,J Magdalena Santana‐Casiano ,David R Munro ,B B Stephens ,Joaquín Triñanes ,Adrienne J Sutton ,Kevin M O’brien ,Abdirahman M Omar ,Shin‐Ichiro Nakaoka ,Jens Daniel Müller ,Melchor Gónzalez-Dávila

doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00400

Abstract

The Surface Ocean CO2 NETwork (SOCONET) and Marine Boundary Layer (MBL) CO2 measurements from ships and buoys focus on the operational aspects of measurements of CO2 in both the ocean surface and atmospheric marine boundary layers. The focus is on providing accurate pCO2 data to within 2 micro atmosphere (µatm) for surface ocean and 0.2 parts per million (ppm) for MBL measurements following rigorous best practices, calibration and intercomparison procedures. Platforms and data will be tracked in near real-time and final quality-controlled data will be provided to the community within a year. The network involving partners worldwide will enable production of important products such as maps of monthly resolved surface ocean CO2 and air-sea CO2 flux measurements. These products and other derivatives using surface ocean and MBL CO2 data, such as surface ocean pH maps and MBL CO2 maps, will be of high value for policy assessments and socio-economic decisions regarding the role of the ocean in sequestering anthropogenic CO2 and how this uptake is impacting ocean health by ocean acidification. SOCONET has an open ocean emphasis and aims to work closely with regional (coastal) networks and liaise with intergovernmental science organizations such as Global Atmosphere watch (GAW), and the joint WMO-IOC committee for and ocean and [marine] meteorology (JCO[M]M). Here we describe the details of this emerging network and its proposed operations and practices.

Highlights

Rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere and ocean are major issues of our time
Besides accurate air and ocean water measurements provided by the SOCONET partners, data from other sources needs to be included through activities such as the Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas, SOCAT (Bakker et al, 2016) and mapping efforts such as SOCOM (Rödenbeck et al, 2015; Figure 1)
Other benefits to the oceanic community from improving or validating shipboard and mooring MBL CO2 data include increased confidence in CO2 flux data products that include data from multiple different ships/measurement platforms, and better traceability of pCO2 data to the Central Calibration Laboratory (CCL) of World Meteorological Organization (WMO)/Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) currently housed at NOAA/ESRL

Summary

Introduction

Rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere and ocean are major issues of our time. Besides accurate air and ocean water measurements provided by the SOCONET partners, data from other sources needs to be included through activities such as the Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas, SOCAT (Bakker et al, 2016) and mapping efforts such as SOCOM (Rödenbeck et al, 2015; Figure 1).

Results

Conclusion