USAP: New Ocean Floats Deepen A Carbon-Cycle Mystery

Nov. 26, 2018

The U.S. Antarctic Program’s “Antarctic Sun(Link is external)” reports on how SOCCOM is changing the way scientists look at Antarctica’s Southern Ocean:

A new network of automated instruments throughout the Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica, is dramatically changing how scientists view the planet’s least understood ocean.

With four years of data in hand, researchers recently found that the Southern Ocean absorbs far less overall carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than previously thought. The discovery is a major departure from long-standing models that predicted that the region was a major carbon “sink,” and is causing scientists who study the global carbon cycle to revisit their understanding its mechanics around the Antarctic. [read more…(Link is external)]