Abstract
The ocean plays a critical role in reducing the human impact on the
climate by absorbing and sequestering CO2. To quantify the ocean carbon
sink, surface ocean pCO2; must be estimated across space and time.
Sparse in situ pCO2; observations began in the 1980s, thus only global
ocean biogeochemical models (GOBMs) have been the basis for
quantification of the ocean carbon sink prior to the 1980s. The
LDEO-Hybrid Physics Data product (LDEO-HPD) incorporates the physical
knowledge within the GOBMs and corrects these estimates to observations.
Here, we extend the LDEO-HPD product back to 1959 using a climatology of
model-observation misfits. LDEO-HPD is closer to independent
observations than unadjusted GOBMs. Most of the improvement from the
GOBM prior in LDEO-HPD is attributable to the climatological adjustment,
which supports the use of a climatological adjustment prior to 1982.
Air-sea CO2; fluxes for 1959-2020 demonstrate response to atmospheric
pCO2 growth and volcanic eruptions.