title: Tracking the variable North Atlantic sink for atmospheric CO2.
abstract: The oceans are a major sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Historically, observations have been too sparse to allow accurate tracking of changes in rates of CO2 uptake over ocean basins, so little is known about how these vary. Here, we show observations indicating substantial variability in the CO2 uptake by the North Atlantic on time scales of a few years. Further, we use measurements from a coordinated network of instrumented commercial ships to define the annual flux into the North Atlantic, for the year 2005, to a precision of about 10%. This approach offers the prospect of accurately monitoring the changing ocean CO2 sink for those ocean basins that are well covered by shipping routes.
authors: School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. a.watson@uea.ac.uk
authors: Andrew J
authors: AJ
authors: Watson
authors: Ute
authors: U
authors: Schuster
authors: Dorothee C E
authors: DC
authors: Bakker
authors: Nicholas R
authors: NR
authors: Bates
authors: Antoine
authors: A
authors: Corbière
authors: Melchor
authors: M
authors: González-Dávila
authors: Tobias
authors: T
authors: Friedrich
authors: Judith
authors: J
authors: Hauck
authors: Christoph
authors: C
authors: Heinze
authors: Truls
authors: T
authors: Johannessen
authors: Arne
authors: A
authors: Körtzinger
authors: Nicolas
authors: N
authors: Metzl
authors: Jon
authors: J
authors: Olafsson
authors: Are
authors: A
authors: Olsen
authors: Andreas
authors: A
authors: Oschlies
authors: X Antonio
authors: XA
authors: Padin
authors: Benjamin
authors: B
authors: Pfeil
authors: J Magdalena
authors: JM
authors: Santana-Casiano
authors: Tobias
authors: T
authors: Steinhoff
authors: Maciej
authors: M
authors: Telszewski
authors: Aida F
authors: AF
authors: Rios
authors: Douglas W R
authors: DW
authors: Wallace
authors: Rik
authors: R
authors: Wanninkhof