The ocean helps to mitigate CO₂ emissions to the atmosphere associated with human activity. To understand this role, climate scientists compute the flux of this gas through the air-sea interface. However, these estimations may highly differ when a different source of data are employed or the methodology is slightly modified. Thus, estimations may vary by a factor ~3 in the Bay of Biscay.

The estimation of air-sea CO₂ fluxes is largely dependent on wind speed through the gas transfer velocity parameterization. This sketch visualizes this estimation by using data obtained on board an opportunity vessel that transported Citröen cars from/to Vigo (Spain) to/from Saint Nazaire (France), from October 2002 to July 2003. You can explore the spatio-temporal variability of the CO₂ flux along the route. Moreover, you can examine the differences in the estimation when a different wind speed source is selected or the algorithm employed to perform the estimation is modified. If you like this sketch or you want to learn more, please, visit and cite our published article in Biogeosciences.

Otero, P., X. A. Padin, M. Ruiz-Villarreal, L. M. García-García, A. F. Ríos and F. F. Pérez. Net sea–air CO₂ flux uncertainties in the Bay of Biscay based on the choice of wind speed products and gas transfer parameterizations. Biogeosciences, 10, 2993-3005, 2013.

Source code: ECO

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