Abstract

The meridional WOCE line A17 was conducted during the austral summer of 1994 parallel to the eastern South American coast, from 55°S to 10°S, where one of the main limbs of the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), i.e., the southward-flowing Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) is found. Full-depth profiles of pH, total alkalinity and total inorganic carbon were measured and checked with analytical CO 2 certified reference materials (CRMs), providing a high-quality dataset with good internal consistency for the CO 2 system parameters that is well suited for anthropogenic CO 2 (C ANT) estimation. For the first time in the western Atlantic basin the C ANT has been calculated using four independent approaches and results are compared. The methods considered are the CFC-based TTD method and the φC T°, TrOCA and ∆C* carbon system-based back-calculation methods. All four methods have produced C ANT distribution patterns that are in general good agreement: maximum concentrations of C ANT (50–60 μmol kg − 1 ) are predicted for the upper warm South Atlantic central waters from the tropical gyres, while the minima (~ 5 μmol kg − 1 ) are located in the old northward-flowing branch of Circumpolar Deep Water. There are, however, some discrepancies detected. The TrOCA method yields the highest overall [C ANT] values, even over the theoretical limit of C ANT saturation for 1994 in the upper layers. The ∆C* approach consistently yielded negative estimates of C ANT below 2800 dbar, even after correcting a reported − 8 μmol kg − 1 bias in the alkalinity measurements of the WOCE A17 line. The main overall difference between the four methods corresponds to the relative C ANT maximum associated with the lower limb of NADW: this structure is well identified in the φC T° and TTD methods but seems to disappear in the case of TrOCA and ∆C*. In agreement with other intercomparison studies of C ANT, the specific inventories are significantly higher (~ 45%) than those reported in the GLODAP database obtained from the ΔC* method. This suggests that the South Atlantic stores more C ANT than initially expected, particularly towards the southernmost tip of the WOCE A17 line, close to the Southern Ocean. The φC T°, TrOCA and TTD methods confirm an increasing tendency of C ANT specific inventories south from the Equator, while the ΔC* method shows a decreasing trend south from 35°S.

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