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Title: Study of North Atlantic ventilation using transient tracers. Doctoral Thesis

Abstract

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. (Copyrightmore » (c) Scott C. Doney, 1991.)« less

Authors:
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MA (United States)
OSTI Identifier:
5217994
Report Number(s):
PB-92-172212/XAB; WHOI-91-27
CNN: NSF-OCE-8615289; NSF-OCE-8800957
Resource Type:
Technical Report
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
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; 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-)

Citation Formats

Doney, S C. Study of North Atlantic ventilation using transient tracers. Doctoral Thesis. United States: N. p., 1991. Web.
Doney, S C. Study of North Atlantic ventilation using transient tracers. Doctoral Thesis. United States.
Doney, S C. 1991. "Study of North Atlantic ventilation using transient tracers. Doctoral Thesis". United States.
@article{osti_5217994,
title = {Study of North Atlantic ventilation using transient tracers. Doctoral Thesis},
author = {Doney, S C},
abstractNote = {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.)},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/5217994}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1991},
month = {Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1991}
}

Technical Report:
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