Description: The partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) was measured during the 1995 South-West Monsoon in the Arabian Sea. The Arabian Sea was characterized throughout by a moderate supersaturation of 12–30 µatm. The stable atmospheric pCO2 level was around 345 µatm. An extreme supersaturation was found in areas of coastal upwelling off the Omani coast with pCO2 peak values in surface waters of 750 µatm. Such two-fold saturation (218%) is rarely found elsewhere in open ocean environments. We also encountered cold upwelled water 300 nm off the Omani coast in the region of Ekman pumping, which was also characterized by a strongly elevated seawater pCO2 of up to 525 µatm. Due to the strong monsoonal wind forcing the Arabian Sea as a whole and the areas of upwelling in particular represent a significant source of atmospheric CO2 with flux densities from around 2 mmol m−2 d−1 in the open ocean to 119 mmol m−2 d−1 in coastal upwelling. Local air masses passing the area of coastal upwelling showed increasing CO2 concentrations, which are consistent with such strong emissions.

Description: The penetration of anthropogenic or “excess” CO2 into the North Atlantic Ocean was studied along WOCE‐WHP section A2 from 49°N/11°W to 43°N/49°W using hydrographic data obtained during the METEOR cruise 30–2 in October/November 1994. A backcalculation technique based on measurements of temperature, salinity, oxygen, alkalinity, and total dissolved inorganic carbon was applied to identify the excess CO2. Everywhere along the transect surface water contained almost its full component of anthropogenic CO2 ( ∼62 μmol kg−1). Furthermore, anthropogenic CO2 has penetrated through the entire water column in the western basin of the North Atlantic Ocean. Even in the deepest waters (5000 m) of the western basin a mean value of 10.4 μmol kg−1 excess CO2 was calculated. The maximum penetration depth of excess CO2 in the eastern basin of the North Atlantic Ocean was ∼3500 m with values falling below 5 μmol kg−1 in greater depths. These results compare well with distributions of carbontetrachloride. They are also in agreement with the current understanding of the role of the “global ocean conveyor belt” for the uptake of anthropogenic CO2 into the deep ocean.

Description: Data on the carbonate system of the Northwestern Indian Ocean obtained on a cruise of F.S. Meteor during SW monsoon in July/August 1995 were compared with those of George et al. [George, M.D., Kumar, M.D., Naqvi, S.W.A., Banerjee, S., Narvekar, P.V., de Sousa, S.N., Jayakumar, D.A., 1994. A study of the carbon dioxide system in the northern Indian Ocean during premonsoon. Mar. Chem. 47, 243–254] collected during intermonsoon. In general, deep water values agreed well between the two expeditions. Surface waters, however, showed a substantial increase in dissolved inorganic carbon (CT) in the coastal regions due to strong upwelling in the SW monsoon. This was also accompanied by very high CO2 partial pressures in surface waters. The north–south gradients in vertical profiles of the measured parameters in the Arabian Sea are discussed by comparing profiles from the oligotrophic equatorial region with those from the highly productive central Arabian Sea. The effect of denitrification on regenerated CT and AT is minor, with contributions of 〈9 and 〈8 μmol kg−1, respectively, to the total amount regenerated also utilizing oxygen. The dissolution of biogenic carbonates is discussed; different approaches to define the depth, where the dissolution starts (lysocline(s), carbonate critical depth (CCrD)), are compared together with the calculation of saturation depth from carbonate concentrations. It is shown, that small differences in measured CT and AT (found between our data and those measured during GEOSECS) and different calculation approaches to the CO2 system (different dissociation constants for species involved and taking into account phosphate and silicate concentrations) can produce pronounced differences in the calculated saturation depths. However, CT and AT data suggest substantial dissolution of biogenic carbonate in the water column even above the calcite lysocline, irrespective of the procedures followed to calculate this horizon.

Description: A coulometrically-based SOMMA system for the determination of total dissolved carbon dioxide (TCO2) in a continuous mode was designed and tested at sea. The new continuous technique approached the same high accuracy and reliability associated with prior discrete TCO2 measurements. During three cruises encompassing more than 19 weeks and 6000 continuous TCO2 measurements none of the three different systems tested exhibited any hardware-related failures. We found that coulometer cell lifetimes can greatly exceed prior expectations with many of the titration cells in the continuous mode remaining accurate for up to 72 h at carbon ages exceeding 50 mg C. We suggest a practical definition based on the CRM analyses for changing coulometer cells in the continuous mode. Systematic deviations of the SOMMA pipette volume from a theoretical temperature dependence were identified both from field data comparisons and pipette calibrations. Hence pipettes should be kept at constant temperature or they must be gravimetrically calibrated over the expected temperature range. Comparison of the continuous TCO2 data together with simultaneously measured additional CO2 system parameters showed that the refitted “Mehrbach” dissociation constants for carbonic acid best-represent fCO2 when calculated from TCO2 and alkalinity over a wide range of sea-surface temperatures and salinities. Some remaining systematic differences of calculated–measured fCO2 of up to 9 μatm likely reflect uncertainty in the temperature-dependence of the “Mehrbach” constants as well as possible uncertainty in the alkalinity–salinity relationship used to estimate alkalinity in the consistency checks.

Description: Two newly designed underway systems for the measurement of CO2 partial pressure (pCO2) in seawater and the atmosphere are described. Results of an intercomparison experiment carried out in the North Sea are presented. A remarkable agreement between the two simultaneously measured (pCO2) data sets was observed even though the spatial variability in surface pCO2 was high. The average difference of all l -min averages of the seawater pCO2 was as low as 0.15 μatm with a standard deviation of 1.2 μatm indicating that no systematic difference is present. A closer examination of the profiles shows that differences tend to be highest during maxima of the pCO2 gradient (up to 14 μatm/min). The time constants of both systems were estimated from laboratory experiments to 45 s, respectively, 75 s thus quantitatively underlining their capability of a fast response to pCO2 changes

Description: We compare estimates of the anthropogenic CO2 content of seawater samples from the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean calculated on the basis of a back-calculation technique with measurements of the chlorofluorocarbon CFC-11. Estimated anthropogenic CO2 concentrations are in the range 10–80 µmol kg-1, while CFC-11 concentrations cover the full range from below detection limit to 〉 5 pmol kg-1 in waters at atmospheric equilibrium. The majority of the data points show a linear correlation between anthropogenic CO2 concentrations and CFC-11 saturation, which can only be explained by the strongly advective nature of the North Atlantic Ocean. Only deep eastern basin samples deviate from this general observation in that they show still significant concentrations of anthropogenic CO2 where CFC-11 is no longer detectable. In order to remove the influence of the Revelle factor reflected in the anthropogenic CO2 concentrations we have calculated 'excess' pCO2, showing an even tighter linear correlation with atmospheric equilibrium concentrations of CFC-11.