Study of North Atlantic ventilation using transient tracers. Doctoral Thesis
Tritium, (3)He, and chlorofluorocarbon distributions in the North Atlantic provide constraints on the ventilation time-scales for the thermocline and abyssal water. A new model function based on a factor analysis of the WMO/IAEA precipitation data set is developed for predicting the spatial and temporal patterns of bomb-tritium in precipitation. Model atmospheric and advective tritium inputs to the North Atlantic are compared with the observed bomb-tritium inventories calculated from the 1972 GEOSECS and 1981-1983 TTO data sets. The observed growth of bomb-tritium levels in the deep North Atlantic are used, along with the tracer gradients ((3)H and (3)He) in the Deep Western Boundary Current, to estimate abyssal ventilation rates and boundary current recirculation. The surface boundary conditions for different transient tracers are found to profoundly effect thermocline ventilation rates estimates. Tracers that equilibrate rapidly with the atmosphere, such as (3)He and the CFCs, have faster apparent ventilation rates and are more appropriate for estimating oxygen utilization rates than tracers that are reset slowly in the surface ocean (e.g. (3)H and (14)C). The chlorofluorocarbon data for a new section in the eastern North Atlantic are presented and used to illustrate the ventilation time-scales for the major water masses in the region. (Copyright (c) Scott C. Doney, 1991.)
- Research Organization:
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MA (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 5217994
- Report Number(s):
- PB-92-172212/XAB; WHOI-91-27; CNN: NSF-OCE-8615289; NSF-OCE-8800957
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph.D.). See also AD-A197 756. Prepared in cooperation with Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge. Sponsored by National Science Foundation, Washington, DC
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
ATLANTIC OCEAN
AIR-WATER INTERACTIONS
OCEANIC CIRCULATION
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
AIR POLLUTION
BOUNDARY LAYERS
FREONS
HELIUM 3
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
TRACER TECHNIQUES
TRITIUM COMPOUNDS
VENTILATION
WATER POLLUTION
DISTRIBUTION
EVEN-ODD NUCLEI
HALOGENATED ALIPHATIC HYDROCARBONS
HELIUM ISOTOPES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
ISOTOPE APPLICATIONS
ISOTOPES
LAYERS
LIGHT NUCLEI
NUCLEI
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
SEAS
STABLE ISOTOPES
SURFACE WATERS
540320* - Environment
Aquatic- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)