Arteaga as PI, Weir as Co-I on newly funded NASA CMS grant

Fri, 02 Jun 2023 12:01:11 -0400
gestar2

Lionel Arteaga (610.1/UMBC) is the PI of the NASA Carbon Monitoring Systems (CMS) proposal, "Advancing Satellite-Constrained Modeled Air-Sea CO2 Fluxes with a Focus on the Strength of the Southern Ocean Carbon Sink," which was recently awarded funding. The research team also includes Cecile Rousseaux as a Co-I (GSFC/616), Seth Bushinsky as a Co-I (Univ. Hawaii), Brad Weir as a Co-I (610.1/MSU), and Lesley Ott as a Collaborator (GSFC/610.1).

Dr. Arteaga provided the following information regarding this three-year grant:

"The ocean plays a critical role in mitigating climate change by removing approximately a quarter of annual anthropogenic CO2 emissions from the atmosphere. Model-based estimates point to the Southern Ocean as a key marine region, responsible for approximately 40% of the anthropogenic carbon uptake by the global ocean. However, the contemporary strength of the Southern Ocean carbon sink has recently come into question. ... [The] uncertainty in the strength of the Southern Ocean air-sea CO2 flux and its role in the global carbon cycle hinders our ability to constrain global carbon fluxes, one of the major goals of NASA's Carbon Monitoring System (CMS).

The NASA Ocean Biogeochemical Model (NOBM) produces near-global pCO2 and air-sea CO2 flux estimates that are currently included into the NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) models in support of the CMS effort to monitor global carbon fluxes. The NOBM assimilates ocean color data to improve the representation of biogeochemical fluxes and overcome spatial and temporal gaps in the space-based retrievals. Here, we propose to advance the satellite-constrained flux estimates by investigating the uncertainties in the Southern Ocean air-sea CO2 flux produced by the NOBM, and assess the value that remote sensing ocean color data can have in providing improved estimates of carbon fluxes in the ocean. [Our proposal] includes the delivery of refined in situ float-based carbon fluxes to serve as a constraint on the model-based estimates. [We also propose] to deliver maps of biogenic carbon export specific to each modeled phytoplankton type and investigate the role of ecological plankton complexity in regulating marine carbon uptake and export.

[Our] three goals are a) Delivery of seasonally-adjusted float-based Southern Ocean air-sea CO2 fluxes ...; b) Investigation of uncertainties in Southern Ocean air-sea CO2 flux from the NOBM ...; and, c) Delivery of model-based carbon export partitioning by phytoplankton functional types (PFTs) ... ."