Ten years after – The WOCE AMS radiocarbon program

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section B, Beam interactions with materials and atoms Beam interactions with materials and atoms, 2000-10, Vol.172 (1), p.479-484
• Main Authors: McNichol, A.P., Schneider, R.J., von Reden, K.F., Gagnon, A.R., Elder, K.L., NOSAMS, Key, R.M., Quay, P.D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carbon cycle; Global change; Ocean circulation; Radiocarbon; Stable carbon istotopes
• ISSN: 0168-583X; 1872-9584
• DOI: 10.1016/S0168-583X(00)00093-8

The National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (NOSAMS) Facility is measuring all of the samples collected as part of the US WOCE Program – over 13,000 samples. We designed our extraction lines so that we also measure precise, oceanographically useful δ 13C- ΣCO 2 values. We have completed the analysis of samples from the Pacific and Southern Oceans and are processing those from the Indian Ocean now. At present, this constitutes the world’s largest AMS data set. Reviews of the Pacific radiocarbon data are available and demonstrate the increased penetration of the “bomb signal” into the water column since the 1970s. Stable isotope data are being combined with those collected as part of NOAA’s Ocean-Atmosphere Carbon Exchange Study to study the ocean’s role in the anthropogenic CO 2 cycle. The relationship of δ 13C to other chemical tracers, e.g., PO 4, O 2 and chlorofluorocarbons, will further our understanding of basic oceanographic processes. We present preliminary results from these studies as well as investigate the relationship of 14C to 13C in the ocean.