IMOS - SOOP Ocean Carbon Dioxide Data from MV L'Astrolabe voyage AL1112R4 (Hobart-Dumont d'Urville station)

This data was collected in February 2012 by the IMOS Ship of Opportunity Underway CO2 Measurement research group on MV L'Astrolabe (IMOS platform code: FHZI) voyage AL1112R4.

Departed: Hobart Australia, February 19, 2012 Arrived: Dumont d'Urville station, Antarctica, February 25, 2012

CO2 System Overview: The fugacity of carbon dioxide (fCO2) in surface seawater was measured using a General Oceanics Inc. automated system (Model 8050; Pierrot et al 2009). Seawater is sprayed into an equilibration chamber and CO2 in the headspace gas equilibrates with the seawater. The headspace gas is pumped through a thermoelectric condenser followed by a nafion drying tube, before flowing through a Licor 7000 non-dispersive infrared gas analyser used to measure the CO2 mole fraction (XCO2) of the dried air. The gas flow is stopped temporarily for the CO2 measurements, which are made at atmospheric pressure. A set of four CO2 standards (Table 1) that cover the range of CO2 values expected in the ocean are analysed about every three hours to calibrate the gas analyser. Atmospheric XCO2 (dry) is measured after the standards by pumping clean outside air from an intake on the forward mast of the ship.

The seawater intake is at about 3m depth in the bow of the ship. A remote temperature sensor (Seabird Electronics SBE38) located at the intake is used to measure sea surface temperature (SST). Sea surface salinity is measured using a thermosalinograph (Seabird Electronics SBE21) mounted in the bow thruster space near the intake. The travel time between the intake and CO2 system is typically about 50 seconds with warming usually less than 0.4ºC. The thermosalinograph water is from the same intake and supply line. Meteorological data, salinity, SST, and ships position and time are taken from the ship’s logging system. The salinity values measured by the SBE21 were checked against discrete bottle samples collected on the voyage.

Meteorological data, salinity, SST, and ships position and time are taken from the ships logging system.