Measurements of air-sea gas exchange at high wind speeds in the Southern Ocean: Implications for global parameterizations

Abstract

The SOLAS Air-Sea Gas Exchange (SAGE) Experiment was conducted in the western Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean. During SAGE, gas transfer velocities were determined using the 3 He/SF 6 dual gas tracer technique, and results were obtained at higher wind speeds (16.0 m s -1) than in previous open ocean dual tracer experiments. The results clearly reveal a quadratic relationship between wind speed and gas transfer velocity rather than a recently proposed cubic relationship. A new parameterization between wind speed and gas transfer velocity is proposed, which is consistent with previous 3 He/ SF 6 dual tracer results from the coastal and open ocean obtained at lower wind speeds. This suggests that factors controlling air-sea gas exchange in this region are similar to those in other parts of the world ocean, and that the parameterization presented here should be applicable to the global ocean. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.