Risking Serious Seasickness To Study Climate Change

Who ever knew that to be a climate scientist, you might have to deal with some of the roughest bouts of seasickness possible?

That's what's likely in store for the 30 researchers who are launching next week from Chile on a climate-study mission into the rough Southern Ocean, the body of water that surrounds Antarctica.

These are some of the most turbulent, high-wind seas on the planet. But that's the point. The scientists are studying the exchange of gases between the air and the water, hoping to improve their understanding of how the oceans serve as a final repository for about 2 million metric tons of the carbon created by humans every year, or somewhere between 25 percent and 30 percent of our annual carbon dioxide emissions.

The details of how this happens are still foggy.
That's trouble, when trying to estimate just how much effect the carbon we're producing will wind up having on an already changing climate.

In particular, researchers understand that high wind speeds can produce a faster exchange of gases. But the influence of real-world conditions
(such as the breaking waves and turbulent seas that are likely to produce a few yellow faces over the next six weeks) is still unclear.

The gas absorption isn't driven by wind itself, but rather by associated, hard-to-observe phenomena like turbulence and bubbles, which will be studied during the trip, the researchers say.

"(This) is the largest ocean region where the surface waters directly connect to the ocean interior, providing a pathway into the deep sea for carbon dioxide released from human activities," said Christopher
Sabine, an oceanographer at NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental
Laboratory, Seattle, and co-chief scientist on the cruise.
"Understanding how atmospheric carbon dioxide is absorbed into these cold surface waters under high wind speeds is important for determining how the ocean uptake of carbon dioxide will respond to future climate change."

The project, known as the Southern Ocean Gas Exchange Experiment, will last for six weeks, in conditions one researcher calls "a little grim, but ... ideal for study." A blog will be kept here, for folks who want to follow along without the queasy stomachs.

Voyage to Southern Ocean Aims to Understand Air-Sea Fluxes of Greenhouse Gases [SO-GASEX.org]
NASA Co-Sponsors Ocean Voyage to Probe Climate-Relevant Gases [NASA Press release]

(Photo: The NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown, which will face 30-foot waves and high winds for six weeks while researchers study the Southern
Ocean's carbon absorption capabilities. Credit: SO-GASEX)