The ocean annually absorbs about a quarter of all anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
A recently published paper, partially outcome of the Atlantic Meridional Transect Ocean Flux from satellite campaign (AMT4OceanSatFlux) project, reveals that accounting for vertical temperature gradients near the ocean surface significantly increases estimates of oceanic CO₂ absorption, potentially impacting global carbon budgets.
Researchers measured air-sea CO₂ fluxes along Atlantic transects, comparing direct and indirect methods to gauge the influence of “cool skin” (the 0.01 mm sliver of surface water which is typically fractionally cooler than the water below) on CO₂ exchange. The findings indicate that including these vertical temperature variations reduces discrepancies in CO₂ uptake measurements, suggesting an ~0.03 PgC yr−1 annual increase in the Atlantic CO₂ sink alone, which scales to a 7% increase.
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