ECOA (Exchange of Carbon between Ocean and Atmosphere) Data ECOA aimed to describe and understand the variability of the partial pressure of carbon dioxide at the sea surface along a commercial shiplane between Le Havre (France) and Noumea (New Caledonia). Focus was on the equatorial Pacific and the El Nino ? Southern Oscillation. ECOA was part of the French "Programme National d'Etude du Climat" (PNEDC-CO2) and was supported by the the Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers (INSU) for equipment, and by the Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD) for functioning. Twenty cruises (quarterly) took place from July 1991 to December 1996 onboard of merchant ships Rabelais and Ronsard (Compagnie Generale Maritime). Cruises ECOA_6 to ECOA_8, and ECOA_12 to ECOA_13 failed and the data from these cruises are not reported here. A scientific observer onboard watched over the pCO2 measuring system (IR analyser, and equilibrator based on a vacuum water-pump) and proceeded to calibrations versus gas standards, to sampling for chlorophyll, nutrients and (only for the last five cruises and the equatorial Pacific) TCO2 + alkalinity. The methods are described in Dandonneau (1995). The results showed the decrease in pCO2 in the Pacific equatorial region after the 1992-94 El Nino (from 480 uatm in August 1991 to less than 400 uatm in March 1992). At higher latitudes, the variability of pCO2 appears to be dominated by seasonal variations. Contact : Yves Dandonneau Laboratoire d'Oceanographie Dynamique et de Climatologie (LODYC) Tour 15, 2me Etage Universite Pierre et Marie Curie 4, place Jussieu 75252 Paris cedex 05 France e-mail yves.dandonneau@lodyc.jussieu.fr The table below lists the data files that can be downloaded. If you encounter difficulties downloading the files, use the mouse right button with "save link as" option. When using these data, please refer to Dandonneau (1995). Files named ECOAPCO2xx contain year, month, day, hour (GMT), minutes, longitude (east), latitude, SST, pCO2 (uatm, computed at saturating water vapor at SST). Files named ECOAPRLxx contain year, month, day, hour (GMT), minutes, longitude (east), latitude, NO3+NO2, SiO2 (umol/L), salinity, Chlorophyll a, Pheophytin a (ug/L, measured according to Holm-Hansen et al., 1965, Fluorimetric determination of chlorophyll, Journal du Conseil, 30: 1-15), Total CO2, Alkalinity (umol/kg). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ cruise | start. date | End date | observer | download | Missing data ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ECOA_1 1991-07-27 1991-08-31 Y.Montel ECOAPCO201 ECOAPRLV01 S,cha,pha,tco2,alk ECOA_2 1991-10-22 1991-11-25 J.L.Cremoux ECOAPCO202 ECOAPRLV02 cha,pha,tco2,alk ECOA_3 1992-02-16 1992-03-21 C.Peignon ECOAPCO203 ECOAPRLV03 cha,pha,tco2,alk ECOA_4 1992-05-31 1992-07-07 P.Hamel ECOAPCO204 ECOAPRLV04 sio2,cha,pha,tco2,alk ECOA_5 1992-09-09 1992-10-13 E.Fukai ECOAPCO205 ECOAPRLV05 sio2,tco2,alk ECOA_9 1993-12-29 1994-02-03 J.M.Andre ECOAPCO209 ECOAPRLV09 sio2,tco2,alk ECOA_10 1994-04-06 1994-05-11 A.Guillot ECOAPCO210 ECOAPRLV10 sio2,tco2,alk ECOA_11 1994-07-31 1994-09-03 Y.Montel ECOAPCO211 ECOAPRLV11 sio2,tco2,alk ECOA_14 1995-05-09 1995-06-13 E.Kestenare ECOAPCO214 ECOAPRLV14 sio2,tco2,alk ECOA_15 1995-08-20 1995-09-21 L.Gourdeau ECOAPCO215 ECOAPRLV15 sio2,tco2,alk ECOA_16 1995-12-05 1996-01-05 P.Gerard ECOAPCO216 ECOAPRLV16 sio2 ECOA_17 1996-03-06 1996-04-09 F.Vinson ECOAPCO217 ECOAPRLV17 no3+2,sio2 ECOA_18 1996-06-06 1996-07-14 A.Arseguel ECOAPCO218 ECOAPRLV18 sio2 ECOA_19 1996-09-11 1996-10-14 L.Barre ECOAPCO219 ECOAPRLV19 sio2 ECOA_20 1996-12-12 1997-01-15 D.Bakker ECOAPCO220 ECOAPRLV20 sio2 Publications : Boutin, J., J. Etcheto, Y. Dandonneau, D.C.E. Bakker, R.A. Feely, H.Y. Inoue, M. Ishii, R.D. Ling, P.D. Nightingale, N. Metzl, and R. Wanninkhof 1999. Satellite sea surface temperature : a powerful tool for interpreting in situ pCO2 measurements in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Tellus 51B: 490-508. Dandonneau, Y. 1995. sea-surface partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the eastern equatorial Pacific (August 1991 to October 1992) : a multivariate analysis of physical and biological factors. Deep-Sea Research II 42: 349-364. Lefevre, N., C. Andrie, Y. Dandonneau, G. Reverdin, and M. Rodier 1994. PCO2, chemical properties and estimated new production in the equatorial Pacific in January-March 1991. Journal of Geophysical Research 99: 12639-12654. Lefevre, N. and Y. Dandonneau 1992. air-sea CO2 fluxes in the equatorial Pacific in January-March 1991. Geophysical Research Letters 19: 2223-2226. Stoens, A. and Y. Dandonneau 1999. the CO2 partial pressure in the eastern equatorial Pacific : empirical relationships with other oceanic variables. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth (B) 24: 391-397.