The mission of the Carbon Program at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory is to understand the changing chemistry of the oceans. Without the ocean’s uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the globe would have already reached over 1.5oC warming, along with the significant risks and impacts that are predicted to come with it. Yet key uncertainties in the ocean’s service of CO2 uptake remain to be addressed in order to track global sources and sinks of CO2 and detect how the ocean CO2 sink is changing over time.  This research opportunity focuses on characterizing variations in air-sea CO2 flux across time and space. Approaches include using machine learning applications to assess global ocean CO2 uptake estimates and using new autonomous ocean observing technologies to better understand natural variability and long-term trends.

References:

Gloege, L., McKinley, G. A., Landschützer, P., Fay, A. R., Frölicher, T. L., Fyfe, J. C., et al. (2021). Quantifying Errors in Observationally Based Estimates of Ocean Carbon Sink Variability. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 35(4), e2020GB006788, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GB006788.

Hauck, J., Zeising, M., Le Quéré, C., Gruber, N., Bakker, D. C. E., Bopp, L., et al. (2020). Consistency and Challenges in the Ocean Carbon Sink Estimate for the Global Carbon Budget. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7(852), https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.571720.

Sutton, A. J., N. L. Williams, and B. Tilbrook (2021), Constraining Southern Ocean CO2 Flux Uncertainty Using Uncrewed Surface Vehicle Observations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 48(3), e2020GL091748, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL091748.

key words

ocean CO2 uptake; climate change; ocean acidification; surface ocean pCO2; ocean observing technology

Citizenship:  Open to U.S. citizens, permanent residents and non-U.S. citizens

Level:  Open to Postdoctoral and Senior applicants