NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory Carbon Dioxide Program, located in Seattle, Washington, conducts ocean carbon cycle research from ships and moorings in all of the major ocean basins in collaboration with AOML's CO2 Program. The ocean plays an important role in regulating the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and in regulating climate variability and the impact that humans have on the global environment. Click on the image to the left for more information on the global carbon cycle and PMEL's carbon cycle studies.
In support of NOAA's Climate Observations and Services Program and Global Carbon Cycle Program, the PMEL CO2 group has three primary observational activities:
• Air-Sea CO2 Exchange: The ocean helps regulate atmospheric CO2 concentrations through air-sea exchange. The rate of exchange can be determined by making high resolution measurements on research and vessel-of-opportunity ships. The PMEL CO2 Program currently maintains instruments that collect CO2 information from a variety of ships as they transit the oceans. Click on the image to the right for more information on PMEL underway pCO2 program.
• CO2 Time Series: Time series measurements of ocean carbon and air sea exchange help provide information on carbon cycle variability on time scales ranging from hours to years. The PMEL CO2 Program is building a network of CO2 moorings to make high resolution time series measurements in the global ocean. Click on the image to the left for more information on the PMEL CO2 moorings.
• Global Inventory Changes: The PMEL CO2 Program helps monitor changes in ocean carbon chemistry by making inorganic carbon measurements throughout the water column on research cruises in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. This work is organized under the US Clivar/CO2 Repeat Hydrography Program and is coordinated with international partners through the IOCCP. Click on the image to the right for more information on this Program.