Carbon Related Research during the International Polar Year in the Antarctic

Post-WOCE hydrographic Sections
The following compilation was developed by Jim Swift (Scripps) for the International Repeat Hydrography and Carbon workshop, November 2005.  Not all sections include carbon relevant parameters.

OISO Program
Country: France
PI:  Nicolas Metzl (Uni Paris 6)
Web-site :  http://www.ipsl.jussieu.fr/services/Observations/fr/OISO.htm
Description:  This hydrographic program runs from Reunion, Crozet, Kerguelen, and Amsterdam Islands in the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean, with occupations twice a year since 1998.

Astrolabe Program
Country: Australia, France
PIs:  B. Tilbrook, A. Poisson
Description:  Underway pCO2 measurements are made during regular transits of the French Antarctic resupply vessel l’Astrolabe between Hobart and the Dumont D’Urville base in Antarctica. 

Drake Passage on the LM Gould
Country:  USA
PI:  T. Takahashi
Web-site:  http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~pco2/
Description:  This underway pCO2 line runs from Ponte Arenus Chile to Palmer Station Antarctica approximately 20 times per year.

CANOPO and Argau Project
Countries:  France, Argentina, Italy
PIs:  A. Poisson / D. Ruiz
Web-site: http://clima.casaccia.enea.it/canopo/index.php?lang=en
Description:  CANOPO is a collaboration between Italy, Argentina and France to address the issue of quantifying the CO2 air-sea fluxes in the western part of the South Atlantic. This objective will be pursued relying on the ongoing ARGAU project (2000-2010) in which surface physical and biogeochemical parameters CO2 partial pressure are measured during oceanographic cruises at board of then Argentina's ice-brecker "A. IRIZAR". ARGAU has built a long term observational program (ten years) of in situ collected surface oceanic (SST, SSS, water CO2 partial pressure, alkalinity and phytoplankton biomass) and atmospheric (wind, humidity, heat fluxes) parameters.  CANOPO will collect simultaneous temperature vertical profiles in a transect intersecting the main temperature fronts that will be also monitored with altimeter data. The influence of physical and biological processes in the CO2 absorption will be reconstructed with a 1-D ML model and with 3D global OGCM and bio-geochemical models. The OGCM will be employed also to study the fate of the water masses of the ML on the locations where the CO2 sinks. The variability of the ML depth will be estimated using data and models. The quantity of CO2 absorbed in the area, will be estimated by means of an integrated analysis of CANOPO and ARGAU data and models.

Synoptic Antarctic Shelf-Slope Interactions Study (SASSI)
Countries:  Multi-national
PIs:  Richard Bellerby (Bjerknes Center, Norway), Mario Hoppema (AWI)
Web-site: http://roughy.tamu.edu/sassi/sassi.html
Description:  This project will conduct the first synoptic study of the Antarctic continenetal shelp and slope, which is a critical and under-observed region for physical processes determining global climate. 

SCACE (Synoptic Circum-Antarctic Climate-processes and Ecosystem study)
Country: Germany, Norway
PIs: Volker Strass/Richard Bellerby
Description:  SCACE will study which physical, biological and chemical processes regulate the Southern Ocean system and determine its influence on the global climate development? Specifically, how sensitive are Southern Ocean processes and systems to natural climate change and anthropogenic perturbations? Research will be undertaken during a Polarstern expedition (Nov 2007-January 2008) to the Weddell Sea focusing on the physical and biological oceanographical setting of the ecological and carbon dioxide systems.

SAZ-SENSE
Country: Australia
PI:  Tom Trull
Description: Voyage in Jan-Feb. 2007 investigating Sub-Antarctic Zone sensitivity to global change by comparing HNLC waters southwest of Tasmania with higher biomass waters east of Tasmania as a spatial analogue for temporal evolution from HNLC towards oligotrophic waters in a warming, sluggish-circulation world.

CLIVAR SR3
Country: Australia
PIs: Steve.Rintoul and Edward Butler
Description:  Repeat section with GEOTRACES program from Tasmania to Antarctica in Jan/Feb 2008.  Focus of CLIVAR is on interbasin and overturning circulation variability. Focus of GEOTRACES is on iron and other trace-element supply from Circumpolar Deep Water to the Antarctic surface, and near surface consumption and recycling.

Climate of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean (CASO)
Country: Multi-national; CLIVAR-CLiC-SCAR program
Web-site: http://www.clivar.org/organization/southern/CASO/index.htm
Description:     Goals of CASO are (1) to obtain a synoptic circumpolar snapshot of the physical environment of the Southern Ocean (collaboration with other IPY activities will extend the snapshot to include biogeochemistry, ecology, and biodiversity); and (2)  to enhance understanding of the role of the Southern Ocean in past, present and future climate, including connections between the zonal and meridional circulation of the Southern Ocean, water mass transformation, atmospheric variability, ocean-cryosphere interactions, physical-biogeochemical-ecological linkages, and teleconnections between polar and lower latitudes.  Many of the interdisciplinary studies and hydrographic sections being carried out under this project umbrella include carbon and relevant measurement. 

Polarstern ANT XXIV/3, in combination with CASO and GEOTRACES
Country: Germany, the Netherlands
Carbon PIs: Hoppema, De Baar
Description:  Carbon system parameters will be measured on sections cutting the southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current and the Weddell Sea to be sampled in January-April 2008. This is a repeat section that has been sampled regularly during the past more than 20 years. Main goals are the investigation of the variability in ventilated water masses, and the continuing uptake of anthropogenic CO2.

GasEX-III Southern Ocean
Country: USA
PIs (Planning Group): Carr, Fairall, Feely, Ho, Matrai, McGillis, Sprintall, Strutton, Wanninkhof
Web-site: http://duck-rabbit.ldeo.columbia.edu/so_gasex/
Description:  The experiment is slated to take place in the Southern Ocean in austral fall of 2008 (i.e., March/April 2008). The research objectives for Southern Ocean GasEx are to answer the following questions:

• What are the gas transfer velocities at high winds?
• What is the effect of fetch on the gas transfer?
• How do other non-direct wind effects (whitecaps, possibly surfactants) influence gas transfer?
• How do changing pCO2 and DMS levels affect the air-sea CO2 and DMS flux, respectively in the same locale?
• Are there better predictors of gas exchange in the Southern Ocean other than wind?
• What is the near surface horizontal and vertical variability in turbulence, pCO2, DMS and other relevant biochemical and physical parameters?
• Do the different disparate estimates of fluxes agree, and if not why?
• With the results from Southern Ocean GasEx, can we reconcile the current discrepancy between model based CO2 flux estimates and observation based estimates?