EOL Seminar: Britt Stephens - NCAR EOL/RAF

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Seminar Series Webpage:
https://www.eol.ucar.edu/news-events/...

TITLE: The Southern Ocean Carbon Gas Observatory (SCARGO): Measuring air-sea CO2 exchange from Antarctic cargo aircraft

SPEAKER: Dr. Britt Stephens - NCAR/EOL

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ABSTRACT: The Southern Ocean is an important sink for anthropogenic CO2 emissions, but quantifying this exchange and predicting its future behavior are difficult owing to sparse oceanographic observations and large natural variability. Intermittent forays by research aircraft have shown that in situ airborne CO2 measurements are uniquely capable of providing large scale unambiguous air-sea flux estimates. This is because the atmosphere integrates flux signals over thousands of kilometers and vertical CO2 gradients are more sensitive to fluxes than horizontal gradients sampled by surface stations. The Southern Ocean Carbon Gas Observatory (SCARGO) is an NSF Polar Programs funded effort, led by NCAR EOL, to measure CO2 and related tracers from the LC-130 aircraft that fly between Christchurch, New Zealand and the South Pole in support of the US Antarctic Program. SCARGO completed its first test deployment in November-December of 2022, and is planning to operate over three full summer field seasons starting in 2024. This seminar will present the historical and scientific context for these transformative measurements, preliminary results from 2022, and the future program outlook.