Abstract
Following the 2009 Pacific El Niño, a warm event developed in the tropical and subtropical North Atlantic during boreal spring of 2010 promoted a significant increase in the CO2 fugacity of surface waters. This, together with the relaxation of the prevailing wind fields, resulted in the reversal of the atmospheric CO2 absorption capacity of the tropical and subtropical North Atlantic. In the region 0–30°N, 62–10°W, this climatic event led to the reversal of the climatological CO2 sink of −29.3 Tg C to a source of CO2 to the atmosphere of 1.6 Tg C from February to May. The highest impact of this event is verified in the region of the North Equatorial Current, where the climatological CO2 uptake of −22.4 Tg for that period ceased during 2010 (1.2 Tg C). This estimate is higher than current assessments of the multidecadal variability of the sea-air CO2 exchange for the entire North Atlantic (20 Tg year−1), and highlights the potential impact of the increasing occurrence of extreme climate events over the oceanic CO2 sink and atmospheric CO2 composition.
Highlights
The highest impact of this event is verified in the region of the North Equatorial Current, where the climatological CO2 uptake of −22.4 Tg for that period ceased during 2010 (1.2 Tg C). This estimate is higher than current assessments of the multidecadal variability of the sea-air CO2 exchange for the entire North Atlantic (20 Tg year−1), and highlights the potential impact of the increasing occurrence of extreme climate events over the oceanic CO2 sink and atmospheric CO2 composition
The aim of this study is to identify the extension and quantify the impact of the sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly observed in the North Atlantic climatic event of boreal spring 2010 (Fig. 1) with regard to the CO2 uptake capacity of the basin
SST measured during 2010 in the North Atlantic is significantly higher than that measured in other years along both the Monte Olivia/Rio Blanco and the Colibri tracks
Summary
HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. In the region 0–30°N, 62–10°W, this climatic event led to the reversal of the climatological CO2 sink of −29.3 Tg C to a source of CO2 to the atmosphere of 1.6 Tg C from February to May. The highest impact of this event is verified in the region of the North Equatorial Current, where the climatological CO2 uptake of −22.4 Tg for that period ceased during 2010 (1.2 Tg C). Studies have suggested that the oceanic C sink may be decreasing for the last 50 years[3,4] Whether these changes are caused from anthropogenic climate change or internal climate variability is still uncertain[4,5,6], but they could significantly impact future atmospheric
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