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Parameterisation of the air-sea gas transfer velocity of CO2 and other trace gases under open-ocean conditions has been a focus of air-sea interaction research and is required for accurately determining ocean carbon uptake. Ships are the most widely used platform for air-sea flux measurements but the quality of the data can be compromised by airflow distortion and sensor cross-sensitivity effects. Recent improvements in the understanding of these effects have led to enhanced corrections to the shipboard eddy covariance (EC) measurements. Here, we present a revised analysis of eddy covariance measurements of air-sea CO2 and momentum fluxes from the Southern Ocean Surface Ocean Aerosol Production (SOAP) study. We show that it is possible to significantly reduce the scatter in the EC data and achieve consistency between measurements taken on station and with the ship underway. The gas transfer velocities from the EC measurements correlate better with the EC friction velocity (u∗) than with mean wind speeds derived from shipboard measurements corrected with an airflow distortion model. For the observed range of wind speeds (u10N =3-23 ms-1), the transfer velocities can be parameterised with a linear fit to u∗. The SOAP data are compared to previous gas transfer parameterisations using u10N computed from the EC friction velocity with the drag coefficient from the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE) model version 3.5. The SOAP results are consistent with previous gas transfer studies, but at high wind speeds they do not support the sharp increase in gas transfer associated with bubble-mediated transfer predicted by physically based models.

Abstract. Parameterisation of the air-sea gas transfer velocity of CO2 and other trace gases under open-ocean conditions has been a focus of air-sea interaction research and is required for accurately determining ocean carbon uptake. Ships are the most widely used platform for air-sea flux measurements but the quality of the data can be compromised by air flow distortion and sensor cross-sensitivity effects. Recent improvements in the understanding of these effects have led to enhanced corrections to the shipboard eddy covariance (EC) measurements. Here we present a revised analysis of eddy covariance measurements of air-sea CO2 and momentum fluxes from the Southern Ocean Surface Ocean Aerosol Production study (SOAP). We show that it is possible to significantly reduce the scatter in the EC data and achieve consistency between measurements taken on-station and with the ship underway. The gas transfer velocities from the EC measurements correlate better with the EC friction velocity (u*) than with mean wind speeds derived from shipboard measurements corrected with an air flow distortion model. For the observed range of wind speeds (u10N = 3–23 m s−1), the transfer velocities can be parameterised with a linear fit to u*. The SOAP data are compared to previous gas transfer parameterisations using u10N computed from the EC friction velocity with the drag coefficient from the COARE model. The SOAP results are consistent with previous gas transfer studies, but at high wind speeds they do not support the sharp increase in gas transfer associated with bubble-mediated transfer predicted by physically based models.

Simultaneous air-sea fluxes and concentration differences of dimethylsulfide (DMS) and carbon dioxide (CO2) were measured during a summertime North Atlantic cruise in 2011. This data set reveals significant differences between the gas transfer velocities of these two gases (Î"kw) over a range of wind speeds up to 21ĝ€mĝ€sĝ'1. These differences occur at and above the approximate wind speed threshold when waves begin breaking. Whitecap fraction (a proxy for bubbles) was also measured and has a positive relationship with Î"kw, consistent with enhanced bubble-mediated transfer of the less soluble CO2 relative to that of the more soluble DMS. However, the correlation of Î"kw with whitecap fraction is no stronger than with wind speed. Models used to estimate bubble-mediated transfer from in situ whitecap fraction underpredict the observations, particularly at intermediate wind speeds. Examining the differences between gas transfer velocities of gases with different solubilities is a useful way to detect the impact of bubble-mediated exchange. More simultaneous gas transfer measurements of different solubility gases across a wide range of oceanic conditions are needed to understand the factors controlling the magnitude and scaling of bubble-mediated gas exchange.

An air-sea interaction field campaign was conducted in September of 2017 within the warm and cold eddy region of the western Northwest Pacific (WNP) (17.5°-20.5°N, 127.5°E-133.5°E). Both near-surface oceanic and atmospheric conditions in addition to ocean heat content (OHC) were examined to better understand the mechanisms governing high heat flux magnitudes responsible for rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones. Observations from this experiment indicate that the latent heat flux (LHF) under modest wind conditions reached 400Wm-2 within the vicinity of a warm eddy, with OHC higher than 100 kJ cm-2 of warm eddy region being 2~3 times as large as that of cold eddy region. These high OHC and a resultant high LHF in the warm eddy, comparable to the magnitude of LHF in the North Equatorial Current, may explain the mechanism of why tropical cyclones over a warm eddy in eddy-rich zones often rapidly intensify in the WNP. A month later typhoon Lan rapidly intensified into a super typhoon, while passing over the boundary region of warm and cold eddies during the observation period. Results from this study illustrate that both the wind-normalized LHF and the difference (Qs-Qa) between the specific humidity at air (Qa) and at the sea surface (Qs), closely correlate with OHC patterns, which suggests that the ocean looks likely to control the spatial pattern of LHF. Overall, both the ocean and weather conditions govern the pattern of specific humidity difference between the air-sea interface, with large OHC over the warm eddy controlling higher Qs and the pattern of Qa depending on the pattern of wind direction. Qa as a factor impacting LHF magnitude is strongly linked to wind direction in the experimental area, that is, the drier northwesterly flow and southeasterly moist wind, resulting in the enhanced contrast of specific humidity at cold eddy region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At sea, wind forcing is responsible for the formation and development of surface waves and represents an important source of near surface turbulence. Therefore, processes related to near surface turbulence and wave breaking, such as sea spray emission and air-sea gas exchange are often parametrised with wind speed. Shipborne wind speed measurements thus provide highly relevant observations. They can, however, be compromised by flow distortion due to the ship's structure and objects nearby the anemometer that modify the airflow, leading to a deflection of the apparent wind direction and positive or negative acceleration of the apparent wind speed. The resulting errors in the estimated true wind speed can be greatly magnified at low wind speeds. For some research ships, correction factors have been derived from computational fluid dynamic models or through direct comparison with wind speed measurements from buoys. These correction factors can, however, loose their validity due to changes of the structures nearby the anemometer and thus require frequent re-evaluation, which is costly in either computational power or ship time. Here we evaluate if global weather forecast model data can be used to quantify the flow distortion bias in shipborne wind speed measurements. The method is tested on data from the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE) on board the R/V Akademik Tryoshnikov, which are compared with ERA-5 reanalysis wind speeds. We find that, depending on the relative wind direction, the relative wind speed and direction measurements are biased by −37 % to +20 % and −13° to +15°, respectively. The resulting error in the true wind speed is +11 % on average but ranges from −5 % to +40 % (5th and 95th percentile). After applying the bias correction, the uncertainty in the true wind speed is reduced to 5 % and depends mainly on the average accuracy of the ERA-5 data over the period of the experiment. The obvious drawback of this approach is the potential intrusion of model bias in the correction factors. We show that this problem can be somewhat mediated when the error propagation in the true wind correction is accounted for and used to weight the observations. We discuss the potential caveats and limitations of this approach and conclude that it can be used to quantify flow distortion bias for ships that operate on a global scale. The method can also be valuable to verify Computational Fluid Dynamic studies of airflow distortion on research vessels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stable water isotopologues (SWIs) are useful tracers of moist diabatic processes in the atmospheric water cycle. They provide a framework to analyse moist processes on a range of time scales from large-scale moisture transport to cloud formation, precipitation, and small-scale turbulent mixing. Laser spectrometric measurements on research vessels produce high-resolution time series of the variability of the water vapour isotopic composition in the marine boundary layer. In this study, we present a five-month continuous time series of such ship-based measurements of δ²H and δ18O from the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE) in the Atlantic and the Southern Ocean in the time period from November 2016 to April 2017. We analyse the drivers of meridional SWI variations in the marine boundary layer across diverse climate zones in the Atlantic and Southern Ocean using Lagrangian moisture source diagnostics and relate vertical SWI differences to near-surface wind speed and ocean surface state. The median values of δ18O, δ²H and d-excess during ACE decrease continuously from low to high latitudes. These meridional SWI distributions reflect climatic conditions at the measurement and moisture source sites, such as air temperature, specific humidity, and relative humidity with respect to sea surface temperature. The SWI variability at a given latitude is highest in the extratropics and polar regions with decreasing values equatorwards. This meridional distribution of SWI variability is explained by the variability in moisture source locations and its associated environmental conditions as well as transport processes. The westward located moisture sources of water vapour in the extratropics are highly variable in extent and latitude due to the frequent passage of cyclones and thus widen the range of encountered SWI values in the marine boundary layer. Moisture loss during transport further contributes to the high SWI variability in the extratropics. In the subtropics and tropics, persistent anticyclones lead to well-confined narrow easterly moisture source regions, which is reflected in the low SWI variability in these regions. Thus, the expected range of SWI signals at a given latitude strongly depends on the large-scale circulation. Furthermore, the ACE SWI time series recorded at different heights above the ocean surface provide estimates of vertical SWI gradients in the lowermost marine boundary layer. On average, the vertical gradients with height found during ACE are −0.1 ‰ m−1 for δ18O, −0.5 ‰ m−1 for δ²H and 0.3 ‰ m−1 for d-excess. Careful calibration and post-processing of the SWI data and a detailed uncertainty analysis provide a solid basis for the presented gradients. Using sea spray concentrations and sea state conditions, we show that the vertical SWI gradients are particularly large during high wind speed conditions with increased contribution of sea spray evaporation or during low wind speed conditions due to weak vertical turbulent mixing and dominating effects from non-equilibrium fractionation. Although further SWI measurements at a higher vertical resolution are required to validate these findings, the simultaneous SWI measurements at several heights during ACE show the potential of SWIs as tracers for vertical mixing and sea spray evaporation in the lowermost marine boundary layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global oceans are an important sink of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Therefore, understanding the air-sea flux of CO2 is a vital part in describing the global carbon balance. Eddy covariance (EC) measurements are often used to study CO2 fluxes from both land and ocean. Values of CO2 are usually measured with infrared absorption sensors, which at the same time measure water vapor. Studies have shown that the presence of water vapor fluctuations in the sampling air potentially results in erroneous CO2 flux measurements resulting from the cross sensitivity of the sensor. Here measured CO2 fluxes from both enclosed-path Li-Cor 7200 sensors and open-path Li-Cor 7500 instruments from an inland measurement site are compared with a marine site. Also, new quality control criteria based on a relative signal strength indicator (RSSI) are introduced. The sampling gas in one of the Li-Cor 7200 instruments was dried by means of a multitube diffusion dryer so that the water vapor fluxes were close to zero. With this setup the effect that cross sensitivity of the CO2 signal to water vapor can have on the CO2 fluxes was investigated. The dryer had no significant effect on the CO2 fluxes. The study tested the hypothesis that the cross-sensitivity effect is caused by hygroscopic particles such as sea salt by spraying a saline solution on the windows of the Li-Cor 7200 instruments during the inland field test. The results confirm earlier findings that sea salt contamination can affect CO2 fluxes significantly and that drying the sampling air for the gas analyzer is an effective method for reducing this signal contamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parameterisation of the air-sea gas transfer velocity of CO2 and other trace gases under open-ocean conditions has been a focus of air-sea interaction research and is required for accurately determining ocean carbon uptake. Ships are the most widely used platform for air-sea flux measurements but the quality of the data can be compromised by airflow distortion and sensor cross-sensitivity effects. Recent improvements in the understanding of these effects have led to enhanced corrections to the shipboard eddy covariance (EC) measurements. Here, we present a revised analysis of eddy covariance measurements of air-sea CO2 and momentum fluxes from the Southern Ocean Surface Ocean Aerosol Production (SOAP) study. We show that it is possible to significantly reduce the scatter in the EC data and achieve consistency between measurements taken on station and with the ship underway. The gas transfer velocities from the EC measurements correlate better with the EC friction velocity (u*) than with mean wind speeds derived from shipboard measurements corrected with an airflow distortion model. For the observed range of wind speeds (u10N = 3-23ms-1), the transfer velocities can be parameterised with a linear fit to u*. The SOAP data are compared to previous gas transfer parameterisations using u10N computed from the EC friction velocity with the drag coefficient from the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE) model version 3.5. The SOAP results are consistent with previous gas transfer studies, but at high wind speeds they do not support the sharp increase in gas transfer associated with bubblemediated transfer predicted by physically based models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parameterisation of the air-sea gas transfer velocity of CO2 and other trace gases under open-ocean conditions has been a focus of air-sea interaction research and is required for accurately determining ocean carbon uptake. Ships are the most widely used platform for air-sea flux measurements but the quality of the data can be compromised by air flow distortion and sensor cross-sensitivity effects. Recent improvements in the understanding of these effects have led to enhanced corrections to the shipboard eddy covariance (EC) measurements. Here we present a revised analysis of eddy covariance measurements of air-sea CO2 and momentum fluxes from the Southern Ocean Surface Ocean Aerosol Production study (SOAP). We show that it is possible to significantly reduce the scatter in the EC data and achieve consistency between measurements taken on-station and with the ship underway. The gas transfer velocities from the EC measurements correlate better with the EC friction velocity (u*) than with mean wind speeds derived from shipboard measurements corrected with an air flow distortion model. For the observed range of wind speeds (u10N = 3-23 m s-1), the transfer velocities can be parameterised with a linear fit to u*. The SOAP data are compared to previous gas transfer parameterisations using u10N computed from the EC friction velocity with the drag coefficient from the COARE model. The SOAP results are consistent with previous gas transfer studies, but at high wind speeds they do not support the sharp increase in gas transfer associated with bubble-mediated transfer predicted by physically based models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simultaneous air-sea fluxes and concentration differences of dimethylsulfide (DMS) and carbon dioxide (CO2) were measured during a summertime North Atlantic cruise in 2011. This data set reveals significant differences between the gas transfer velocities of these two gases (Δkw) over a range of wind speeds up to 21ms-1. These differences occur at and above the approximate wind speed threshold when waves begin breaking. Whitecap fraction (a proxy for bubbles) was also measured and has a positive relationship with Δkw, consistent with enhanced bubble-mediated transfer of the less soluble CO2 relative to that of the more soluble DMS. However, the correlation of Δkw with whitecap fraction is no stronger than with wind speed. Models used to estimate bubble-mediated transfer from in situ whitecap fraction underpredict the observations, particularly at intermediate wind speeds. Examining the differences between gas transfer velocities of gases with different solubilities is a useful way to detect the impact of bubble-mediated exchange. More simultaneous gas transfer measurements of different solubility gases across a wide range of oceanic conditions are needed to understand the factors controlling the magnitude and scaling of bubble-mediated gas exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]