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Ocean, Ice, Atmosphere Seminar
Equatorial upwelling inferred from Helium isotope distributions
by
Prof. Monika Rhein
Department of Oceanography
Institute of Environmental Physics
University of Bremen
Upwelling is one of the key processes to maintain the Tropical Atlantic
cold tongue. This feature is of special interest to climate research,
since its SST variability is significantly correlated with the West
African Monsoon. Direct measurements of the upwelling have been hampered
by the small speeds involved. Instead, vertical motion has to be
estimated by indirect methods. Here we propose a novel approach to infer
equatorial upwelling velocities by exploiting the helium isotope
disequilibrium between atmosphere and equatorial oceanic mixed layer.
The data were collected during WOCE cruises A13 and A14. Although the
vertical and horizontal resolution of the helium data in the upper
tropical oceans was too poor to support a detailed study, it was
sufficient to show the potential of the method.
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