WINTERTIME TOTAL CARBON-DIOXIDE MEASUREMENTS IN THE NORWEGIAN AND GREENLAND SEAS

The C.S.S. Hudson cruise in the Norwegian and Greenland Seas in February-April 1982 generated for the first time an extensive set of carbonate data under conditions conducive to deep-water formation in the North Atlantic. Excess CO2 signals relating to the build-up of fossil fuel CO2 in the atmosphere have been calculated for the Greenland and Norwegian Seas based on these wintertime carbonate data. Compared with our previous efforts, the results presented here suffer the least systematic error. The Norwegian-Greenland Seas have in general been contaminated by anthropogenic CO2 from surface to bottom, with the Greenland Sea containing more excess CO2 than the Norwegian Sea. The excess CO2 results are corroborated by being linearly correlated with the apparent oxygen utilization and with tritium data. Vertical profiles of carbon-14, krypton-85 and freons are similar to the excess CO2 profiles. Overall, the Greenland and Norwegian Seas (between 65 and 80°N) are estimated to contain 0.85 ± 0.2 × 1015g excess CO2. © 1990.