Upper ocean carbon cycling inferred from direct pH observations made by profiling floats and estimated alkalinity

The annual cycle of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) is a key tracer of net community production and carbon export in the upper ocean. In particular, the DIC concentration is much less sensitive to air-sea gas exchange, when compared to oxygen, another key tracer of upper ocean metabolism. However, the annual DIC cycle is observed with a seasonal resolution at only a few time-series stations in the open ocean. Here, we consider the annual carbon cycle that has been observed using profiling floats equipped with pH sensors. Deep-Sea DuraFET pH sensors have been deployed on profiling floats for over three years and they can provide temporal and spatial resolution of 5 to 10 days and 5 to 10 m in the upper ocean over multi-year periods. In addition to pH, a second carbon system parameter is required to compute DIC. Total alkalinity can be derived from the float observations of temperature, salinity and oxygen using equations in these variables that are fitted to shipboard observations of alkalinity obtained in the global repeat hydrography programs (e.g., Juranek et al., GRL, doi:10.1029/2011GL048580, 2011), as the relationships should be stable in time in the open ocean. Profiling floats with pH have been deployed from Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT) cruises since late 2012 and an array of floats with pH have been deployed since early 2014 in the Southern Ocean as part of the SOCCOM program. The SOCCOM array should grow to nearly 200 floats over the next 5 years. The sensor data was quality controlled and adjusted by comparing observations at 1500 m depth to the deep climatology of pH (derived from DIC and alkalinity) computed with the GLODAP data set. After adjustment, the surface DIC concentrations were calculated from pH and alkalinity. This yields a data set that is used to examine annual net community production in the oligotrophic North Pacific and in the South Pacific near 150 West from 40 South to 65 South.