RAPID: Exploring the high-frequency variability of air-sea CO2 fluxes in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific from an ecotourism ship

这项奖励将支持在一艘生态旅游船上安装传感器，以便在该船在加拉帕戈斯群岛之间航行时持续测量地表水二氧化碳浓度。生态旅游船几乎每周都在南大洋、北冰洋和赤道太平洋等世界海洋的关键区域进行横断面调查，远远超出海洋考察船的成本效益范围。长期目标是将目前拟议的工作作为试点或概念验证研究，并扩大在其他船只上部署自动化在航传感器和科学设备，例如在北极和南极洲等其他气候重要地区的林德布莱德探险队-国家地理船队(和其他生态旅游公司)的船。除了收集高质量的数据外，拟议的工作还将教育船上的客人了解海洋在全球气候中的核心作用，并激发他们对实践公民科学的兴趣。该项目的具体目标是完成在加拉帕戈斯生态旅游船Lindblad Expeditions上安装General Ocean二氧化碳传感器，并启动高分辨率、高频观测的时间序列。指导这项工作的最重要的假设是，目前在这个海-气二氧化碳通量热点地区的采样计划导致海洋每年吸收全球二氧化碳的估计存在很大的不确定性。一个必然的假设是，在3x3度加拉帕戈斯群岛内测量的二氧化碳反映了赤道东太平洋(EEP)更广泛的格局，受高度动态和高度可变的洋流、上升流和生物生产力的控制。调查人员将利用统计建模和机器学习技术，将加拉帕戈斯的观测结果与不太频繁的船上观测结果联系起来，并将其与欧洲环保局以西约20度的MAPCO2 TAO系泊地点联系起来。持续的、多年的、高分辨率的研究将极大地改进对EEP和全球海气二氧化碳通量绝对值和年际变化的估计。数据将被提交给表层海洋二氧化碳地图集(SOCAT)观测数据集，以纳入其年度海-气二氧化碳通量预算并纳入全球碳项目。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award will support the installation of a sensor on an ecotourism ship to continuously measure surface water carbon dioxide concentrations while the ship is underway among the Galapagos islands. Ecotourism ships are conducting transects on an almost weekly basis in critical regions of the world’s oceans, such as the Southern Ocean, the Arctic, and the Equatorial Pacific, far beyond cost-effective reach of oceanographic research vessels. The long-term goal is for the current proposed work to serve as a pilot or proof-of-concept study, and to expand the deployment of automated underway sensors and scientific equipment on other ships such as those of the Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic fleet (and other ecotourism companies) in other climate-important regions, including the Arctic and Antarctica. In addition to collecting high-quality data, the proposed work will educate ship guests on the central role of oceans in global climate and stimulate their interest in hands-on citizen science. The specific goals of this project are to complete installation of a General Oceanics pCO2 sensor on the Galapagos ecotourism ship of Lindblad Expeditions and to initiate a time series of high resolution, high frequency observations. The overarching hypothesis guiding this work is that the current sampling program in this hotspot of air-sea CO2 flux leads to large uncertainties in estimates of the annual global carbon CO2 uptake by the ocean. A corollary hypothesis is that pCO2 measured within the 3x3 degree Galapagos Archipelago reflects broader-scale patterns in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific (EEP), controlled by highly dynamic and highly variable currents, upwelling, and biologic productivity. The investigators will utilize statistical modelling and machine learning techniques to tie the Galapagos observations to those from less frequent shipboard observations and to the MAPCO2 TAO moorings in the EEP some 20 degrees farther west. Continuous, multi-year, high-resolution study will greatly improve estimates of the absolute value and the interannual variability of the EEP and global air-sea CO2 flux. Data will be submitted to the Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT) observational dataset for inclusion in their annual air-sea CO2 flux budgets and incorporation into the Global Carbon Project.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.