North Pacific

This synthesis project addresses 3 primary themes:

1. How are air-sea CO2 fluxes in the North Pacific affected by different modes of variability?
2. How and why are the North Pacific distribution patterns of carbon, nutrients and oxygen in the water column changing with time?
3. What are the requirements for detecting a climate change signal in the North Pacific carbon cycle

This synthesis activity was launched at the Understanding North Pacific Carbon-Cycle Changes: A Data Synthesis and Modeling Workshop, June 2-4, 2004

Sponsors:
NOAA/OGP’s Global Carbon Cycle Program with additional support from the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES), The Global Carbon Project (GCP), and the University of Washington Program on Climate Changes (UWPCC).

Organizers:
Christopher L. Sabine and Richard Feely (NOAA/PMEL), Jorge Sarmiento and Robert Key (Princeton Univ.), Nicholas Gruber (UCLA), Scott Doney (WHOI)

Background:
This synthesis project was designed to bring together those researchers that have studied variability in the North Pacific to synthesize the individual experiences into a basin-scale picture of the North Pacific carbon-cycle. The synthesis, which began in early 2004, followed a 3-step approach:

1. Synthesis Preparation - Establishment of science issues and working groups; Assessment of state of knowledge and identification of relevant data sets, model results, and analysis approaches; Development of common frameworks for data and goals among all working groups; Preparation of new calculations and figures based on the agreed synthesis framework. This step is mostly accomplished through email.
2. Workshop - Presentation of assessments and new findings; outlining synthesis manuscripts; Developing collaborative follow-up activities; Identification of future research needs.
3. Collaborations, Data Synthesis Development, Publications - Finalizing synthesis papers; Synthesis data set development and publication; Continued collaborations.

The 3-step approach produces not only a data synthesis of relevant data sets, but also a scientific re-analysis of these data with a view toward the larger picture, new collaborations, and peer-reviewed literature.

For this North Pacific study, the data synthesis was further enhanced by a simultaneous examination of North Pacific variability in a variety of models. The model runs were used to predict where variability signals should be most prominent and to evaluate whether the modeled variability is consistent with the data-based signals that develop from the synthesis.

For more information about the synthesis, including protocols, publications, models, data and metadata, visit the workshop web-site at http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/NP/ .

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Atlantic Carbon Synthesis Groups

This project was initiated at the IOCCP-CarboOcean Initial Atlantic Ocean Carbon Synthesis Meeting, June 28-30 2006, Laugarvatn, Iceland. The meeting brought together 23 participants from 9 countries with expertise ranging from ship-based hydrography and carbon measurements, physical oceanography, surface pCO2 variability, CFC and tracer measurements, O2 on profiling floats, modeling, and data synthesis and management.  The specific goals of this workshop were:

• To identify the ocean carbon and related data that have been collected in the Atlantic Ocean (including Arctic and Southern Ocean sectors) that will contribute to a synthesis of ocean carbon, heat and freshwater transport and storage;

• To document the plans and interests of individual research groups for conducting scientific analysis of ocean carbon and other hydrographic data;

• To establish collaborations between groups based around key science questions; 

• To assess progress with compilations of Atlantic carbon and other hydrographic data (e.g., CARINA data) being carried out as part of CARBOOCEAN;

• To discuss comparisons of methods to estimate anthropogenic CO2.

• To make plans for an Atlantic Ocean synthesis using new integrated and multi-disciplinary approaches, outlining as far as possible joint collaborations, data sharing, data management, quality-control and co-authorship issues.

• To address issues and needs for common methodologies and approaches to be used for syntheses that will be carried out in other basins to ensure a globally-consistent approach

Workshop participants developed three coordinated synthesis groups and a common data module: 

• North Atlantic working group (lead: Are Olsen, Bjerknes Center for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway)
• Atlantic working group (lead: Toste Tanhua, IFM-GEOMAR, Kiel, Germany)
• South Atlantic / Southern Ocean (lead: Mario Hoppema, AWI, Bremerhaven, Germany)
• Data: Robert Key, Princeton University, USA

These groups identified key collaborators, refined key questions to address with the syntheses, identified data sets to be used in the syntheses, assigned responsibilities for quality control of each parameter, and discussed key synthesis papers, topics, and co-authors to be developed in the next 12-18 months. 

For more information, including data, working documents, and follow-up activities, please visit the synthesis home page at: http://www.carbon-synthesis.org/

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