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Observation-based variability in the global ocean carbon sink from 1959-2020
  • Val Bennington,
  • Lucas Gloege,
  • Galen A McKinley
Val Bennington
Lamont Doherty Earth Institute of Columbia University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Lucas Gloege
Columbia University
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Galen A McKinley
Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University
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Abstract

The ocean plays a critical role in reducing the human impact on the climate by absorbing and sequestering CO2. To quantify the ocean carbon sink, surface ocean pCO2; must be estimated across space and time. Sparse in situ pCO2; observations began in the 1980s, thus only global ocean biogeochemical models (GOBMs) have been the basis for quantification of the ocean carbon sink prior to the 1980s. The LDEO-Hybrid Physics Data product (LDEO-HPD) incorporates the physical knowledge within the GOBMs and corrects these estimates to observations. Here, we extend the LDEO-HPD product back to 1959 using a climatology of model-observation misfits. LDEO-HPD is closer to independent observations than unadjusted GOBMs. Most of the improvement from the GOBM prior in LDEO-HPD is attributable to the climatological adjustment, which supports the use of a climatological adjustment prior to 1982. Air-sea CO2; fluxes for 1959-2020 demonstrate response to atmospheric pCO2 growth and volcanic eruptions.