An Ensemble of CFC-11 Tracer Distributions From a Global Eddying Ocean Circulation Model

CFCs, introduced into the atmosphere in the 1930s, have now entered much of the world ocean, where they are advected as a passive tracer. They have been widely used both as a fluid tag to estimate the time elapsed since water last saw contact with the atmosphere, and as a metric for assessing model skill. Results will be shown from a global eddying ocean model simulation of ensemble CFC-11 members and transit-time distributions. Changes in pCFC age expected from internal ocean variability will be assessed, and it will be shown how CFC-derived ages change spatially and temporally. pCFC ages will also be compared with the mean age derived from the transit-time distribution. Finally, implications of eddy-induced variability in the oceanic CFC distribution for comparison with observations will be discussed.