Quantification of Chaotic Intrinsic Variability of Sea-Air CO₂ Fluxes at Interannual Timescales.

ABSTRACT: Chaotic intrinsic variability (CIV) emerges spontaneously from nonlinear ocean dynamics even without any atmospheric variability. Eddy-permitting numerical simulations suggest that CIV is a significant contributor to the interannual to decadal variability of physical properties. Here we show from an ensemble of global ocean eddy-permitting simulations that large-scale interannual CIV propagates from physical properties to sea-air CO₂ fluxes in areas of high mesoscale eddy activity (e.g., Southern Ocean and western boundary currents). In these regions and at scales larger than 500 km (~5°), CIV contributes significantly to the interannual variability of sea-air CO₂ fluxes. Between 35°S and 45°S (midlatitude Southern Ocean), CIV amounts to 23.76 TgC yr^-1 or o

SUBMITTER: Gehlen M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7757255 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature