Ocean Carbon Network

Over the past two and a half centuries, the ocean has absorbed approximately 25% of humankind’s carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, reducing the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and slowing the rate of climate change. While the uptake of CO₂ by the ocean reduces the amount of warming the emissions would otherwise cause, it also increases the acidity of seawater, endangering marine organisms and ocean health. Long-term monitoring and scientific analysis of ocean carbon fluxes and inventories is critical for understanding how this important sink for anthropogenic CO₂ functions, to determine if ocean uptake of CO₂ will keep pace with emissions, and how we can best anticipate, mitigate, and adapt to potential future changes.

NOAA’s Global Ocean Carbon Network provides long-term observations of carbon from the sea surface to the ocean interior at a range of spatial and temporal scales. This network helps address the key socioeconomic and scientific questions relating to the fate and impacts of the changing global carbon cycle on society and then environment.

Surface Ocean Carbon
Knowledge of interannual and decadal changes in oceanic CO₂ uptake are essential for assessing the feedbacks between climate change and the ocean carbon cycle. The surface ocean pCO₂ network  provides information on the role of shorter-term variability on the global carbon system. This network measures the temperature, salinity, and pCO₂ in surface water and air from Ships of Opportunity (SOOP), including research and commercial vessels, and autonomous platforms to determine the carbon exchange between the ocean and atmosphere. These observations are used to quantify the amount of atmospheric CO₂ sequestered by the ocean on seasonal scales, document changes in the surface ocean carbon chemistry, and evaluate the variability in air-sea fluxes to provide meaningful projections of future atmospheric CO₂ levels.

Ocean Interior Carbon
Ship-based hydrography remains the only method for obtaining high-quality, high spatial and vertical resolution measurements of a suite of physical, chemical, and biological parameters over the full water column on a global scale. U.S. GO-SHIP, part of the international GO-SHIP network of sustained hydrographic sections, collects ocean interior carbon measurements to determine changes in anthropogenic CO₂ inventories throughout the water column, including at depths greater than two kilometers below the current depth of core Argo floats.

Relevant Links                                                                         Data

• PMEL Carbon Program & Carbon Data Portal                                                • Ocean Carbon and Acidification Data System (OCADS)
• AOML Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division                                           • CLIVAR and Carbon Hydrographic Data Office (CCHDO)   
• ESRL Global Monitoring Division
• LDEO Carbon Dioxide Research Group                                                                     Products
• Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences
• University of Colorado Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR)            • Surface Ocean CO₂ Atlas (SOCAT)
• University of Miami/RSMA                                                                       • Global Ocean Data Analysis Project (GLODAP)
• Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP)         • Moored pCO₂ Time Series Product
• US GO-SHIP                                                                                          • State of the Climate Report
• Surface Ocean CO₂ Reference Observing Network (SOCONET)                        • Global Carbon Budget
   

International Partners

• International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project (IOCCP)
• Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS)
• Integrated Ocean Carbon Research (IOC-R) Working Group