Study on air-sea CO2 gas exchange with wave breaking

Abstract

Atmospheric CO2 is accumulating in recent decades due to excessive anthropogenic activities such as fossil fuel combustion, which intensifies global warming and affects the balance of carbon cycle. With more CO2 in the air, ocean which acts as one of the largest carbon reservoirs absorbs about 26% of the human emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere. The increased ocean inventory of anthropogenic carbon has caused the acidification of ocean water, making it critical to assess the CO2 gas transfer process at air-sea interface. CO2 gas transfer velocity (KCO2) is the main subject in the estimation of gas flux. To date, KCO2 is traditionally parameterized with wind speed, but it is the waves which..