EGU2020-12436, updated on 22 Feb 2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-12436
EGU General Assembly 2020
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Study on air-sea CO2 exchange with wave breaking

Shuo Li1, Alexander Babanin1, Fangli Qiao2, Dejun Dai2, Shumin Jiang2, and Changlong Guan3
Shuo Li et al.
  • 1University of Melbourne, Department of infrastructure Engineering, Australia
  • 2First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao, China
  • 3College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China

Hydrodynamic processes at air-sea interface play a significant role on air-sea CO2 gas exchange, which further affects global carbon cycle and climate change. CO2 gas transfer velocity (KCO2) is generally parameterized with wind speed but ocean surface waves have direct impact on the gas exchange. Thus, the relationship between wave breaking and CO2 gas exchange was studied through laboratory experiments and by utilizing field campaign data. The results from laboratory show that wave breaking plays a significant role in CO2 gas exchange in all experiments while wind forcing can also influence KCO2. A non-dimensional empirical formula is established in which KCO2 is expressed as the product of wave breaking probability, transformed Reynolds number and an enhancement factor of wind speed. The parameterization is then improved by considering the bubble-mediated gas transfer based on both laboratory and ship campaign data sets. In the end, the formula is employed in the estimation of global CO2 uptake by ocean and the result is found consistent with reported values.

How to cite: Li, S., Babanin, A., Qiao, F., Dai, D., Jiang, S., and Guan, C.: Study on air-sea CO2 exchange with wave breaking, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-12436, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-12436, 2020.

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