The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) not only affects meteorological fields but also has a large impact on atmospheric composition. Atmospheric composition fields from the Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate (MACC) reanalysis are used to identify the ENSO signal in tropospheric ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and smoke aerosols, concentrating on the months October to Decemb...

The commonly adopted biogeochemistry spin-up process in an Earth system model (ESM) is to run the model for hundreds to thousands of years subject to periodic atmospheric forcing to reach dynamic steady state of the carbon– nitrogen (CN) models. A variety of approaches have been proposed to reduce the computation time of the spin-up process. Significant improvement in computational efficiency h...

A three dimensional, time-evolving field of atmospheric potential oxygen (APO ∼O2/N2+CO2) was estimated using surface O2, N2 and CO2 fluxes from the WHOI ocean ecosystem model to force the MATCH atmospheric transport model. Land and fossil carbon fluxes were also run in MATCH and translated into O2 tracers using assumed O2:CO2 stoichiometries. The modeled seasonal cycles in APO agree well with ...

In this study we quantify effects of urban areas on the carbon cycle in Europe accounting for: (1) proportion of impervious land, (2) local urban climate, (3) urban CO2 concentrations, and (4) elevated atmospheric nitrogen deposition. We use a terrestrial ecosystem model to estimate biosphere-to-atmosphere carbon fluxes in response to these urban factors. It was found that fertilization effects...

We develop and test a theory for the relationship of atmospheric pCO2 and the solubility pump of CO2 in an abiotic ocean. The solubility pump depends on the hydrographic structure of the ocean and the degree of saturation of the waters. The depth of thermocline sets the relative volume of warm and cold waters, which sets the mean solubility of CO2 in the ocean. The degree of saturation depends ...

Increasing quantities of atmospheric anthropogenic fixed nitrogen entering the open ocean could account for up to about a third of the ocean's external (nonrecycled) nitrogen supply and up to approximately 3% of the annual new marine biological production, approximately 0.3 petagram of carbon per year. This input could account for the production of up to approximately 1.6 teragrams of nitrous o...

The study of organic chemistry in atmospheric aerosols and cloud formation is of interest in predictions of air quality and climate change. It is now known that aqueous phase chemistry is important in the formation of secondary organic aerosols. Here, the photoreactivity of pyruvic acid (PA; CH3COCOOH) is investigated in aqueous environments characteristic of atmospheric aerosols. PA is current...

Previous studies have demonstrated the importance of enhanced vegetation growth under future elevated atmospheric CO2 for 21st century climate warming. Surprisingly no study has completed an analogous assessment for the historical period, during which emissions of greenhouse gases increased rapidly and land-use changes (LUC) dramatically altered terrestrial carbon sources and sinks. Using the G...

The bulk of Earth's coal deposits used as fossil fuel today was formed from plant debris during the late Carboniferous and early Permian periods. The high burial rate of organic carbon correlates with a significant drawdown of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) at that time. A recent analysis of a high-resolution record reveals large orbitally driven variations in atmospheric CO2 concentration be...

Recent advances in atmospheric transport model inversions could significantly reduce uncertainties in land carbon uptake through the assimilation of CO2 concentration measurements at weekly and shorter timescales. The potential of these measurements for reducing biases in estimated land carbon sinks depends on the strength of covariation between surface fluxes and atmospheric transport at these...