EXPLOITING ENVISAT AATSR, MERIS AND RA2 TO QUANTIFY SULPHUR FLUXES IN ARCTIC SEAS

摘要

During 2008 and 2009 we applied coincident RA2, AATSR and MERIS data to characterise environmental conditions and net sea-air fluxes of dimethyl sulphide (DMS) in two Arctic seas (Greenland, Barents) to assess net DMS flux sensitivity due to changes in temperature, salinity and sea ice duration arising from future climate scenarios. We estimate sea-air fluxes of 0.028 and 0.057 Tg S yr~(-1) respectively. In a sensitivity analysis we varied temperature, salinity and sea ice duration. Variations in temperature and salinity led to modification of the transfer velocity of DMS. Our results showed that warming had a strong positive effect on the annual net sea-air flux of DMS, freshening had a negligible effect and reduced sea ice duration had a small but measurable positive effect.