2012

 
 

All photographs copyright of Roisin Commane

Understanding the role of Carbonyl Sulfide (OCS) in marine ecosystems:

It has been proposed that OCS can be used as a proxy to resolve CO2 photosynthetic uptake and respiration (Campbell et al 2008, Science). However, these studies assumed the role of soil uptake on the OCS budget is negligible, while laboratory studies have suggested greater uptake from soils than previously assumed.


Marine emissions are the dominant source of OCS to the atmosphere. However, until now, eddy flux measurements of OCS have not been possible to directly measure the magnitude of this flux.


I ran a QCL instrument to measure fluxes of carbonyl sulfide (OCS) from the jackstaff on the bow of the Ron Brown. Thanks to Ludovic Bariteau, Chris Fairall and Sergio Pezoa at NOAA Boulder, we also ran a sonic anemometer and motion package to determine the true winds impacting the jackstaff.


Scott Herndon, Mark Zahniser and Cody Floerchinger (Aerodyne), Martin Graus (NOAA) and Michael Long (Harvard) were all a great help in installing the instrument and sampling lines during the installation period.