Measurements of air-sea gas exchange at high wind speeds in the Southern Ocean: Implications for global parameterizations
Abstract
The SOLAS Air-Sea Gas Exchange (SAGE) Experiment was conducted in the western Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean. During SAGE, gas transfer velocities were determined using the 3He/SF6 dual gas tracer technique, and results were obtained at higher wind speeds (16.0 m s-1) than in previous open ocean dual tracer experiments. The results clearly reveal a quadratic relationship between wind speed and gas transfer velocity rather than a recently proposed cubic relationship. A new parameterization between wind speed and gas transfer velocity is proposed, which is consistent with previous 3He/SF6 dual tracer results from the coastal and open ocean obtained at lower wind speeds. This suggests that factors controlling air-sea gas exchange in this region are similar to those in other parts of the world ocean, and that the parameterization presented here should be applicable to the global ocean.
- Publication:
-
Geophysical Research Letters
- Pub Date:
- August 2006
- DOI:
- 10.1029/2006GL026817
- Bibcode:
- 2006GeoRL..3316611H
- Keywords:
-
- Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Air/sea constituent fluxes (3339;
- 4504);
- Oceanography: Physical: Air/sea interactions (0312;
- 3339);
- Oceanography: Biological and Chemical: Carbon cycling (0428);
- Oceanography: Biological and Chemical: Gases