Objectives
To assemble and report an observational data base of measurements of carbon and carbon-related
properties in the ocean interior through collection, merging and reporting of new and historical data.
Description of work
- Nationally funded (European) hydrographic cruises within the North and South Atlantic Oceans
will be supplemented, as necessary, to assure the set of measurements necessary for carbon
inventory studies. (temperature, salinity, TCO2, 2nd inorganic-C-system parameter such as
alkalinity, 13C, O2, nutrients (nitrate, phosphate, silicate), chlorofluorocarbons. The majority of
these measurements are funded from other sources). The planned national cruises for the first 18
months are: Spain to Greenland section (France); Tropical and North Atlantic sections
(Germany); Southern Ocean (Germany); northern North Atlantic (Netherlands); Greenland Sea
at 75ºN (Norway); South Atlantic and Drake Passage (UK); Irminger and Iceland Seas (Iceland);
trans-Arctic section (Sweden) (partners 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 16, 23, 32). All of these cruises will
contribute surface and atmospheric data to Theme 1, WPs 4 and 5.
- Contribute to international coordination of measurement campaigns through provision of
detailed metadata concerning cruise plans, measurements made and quality assurance to the
International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project (http://ioc.unesco.org/ioccp/) (partners 1, 3, 4,
5, 9, 16, 23, 32, 44)
- Combine new data with high-quality data from earlier national programs assembled under the
informal CARINA project (http://www.ifm.uni-kiel.de/fb/fb2/ch/research/carina/) as well as with
Atlantic data collected by the US-led Transient Tracers in the Ocean Program (early 1980's), the
Global Survey of CO2 in the Oceans (1990's), and recent data collected by the US-CLIVAR Repeat
Hydrography Program (2003) (partners 1, 4, 5, 16, 23, 44)
Document, quality-control and release the data via world data centres, in close collaboration with
US partners, using procedures developed for the analysis of data collected during the
WOCE/JGOFS Global Survey of CO2 in the Oceans (partners 3, 4, 16, 37, 39, 45).
