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| Titel |
Simulation of bombe radiocarbon transient in the Mediterranean Sea using a high-resolution regional model. |
| VerfasserIn |
Mohamed Ayache, Jean-Claude Dutay, Anne Mouchet, Nadine Tisnérat-Laborde, Fouzia Houma-Bachari, Ferial Louanchi, Philippe Jean-baptiste |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2016
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
en
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 18 (2016) |
| Datensatznummer |
250131531
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2016-11952.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| The radiocarbon isotope of carbon “14C”, which a half-life of 5730 years, is continually
formed naturally in the atmosphere by the neutron bombardment of 14N atoms. However, in
the 1950s and early1960s, the atmospheric testing of thermonuclear weapons added a
large amount of 14C into the atmosphere. The gradual infusion and spread of this
“bomb” 14C through the oceans has provided a unique opportunity to gain insight into
the specific rates characterizing the carbon cycle and ocean ventilations on such
timescales.
This numerical study provides, for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, a simulation of
the anthropogenic 14C invasion covers a 70-years period spanning the entire 14C generated
by the bomb test, by using a high resolution regional model NEMO-MED12 (1/12∘ of
horizontal resolution). This distribution and evolution of Δ14C of model is compared
with recent high resolution 14C measurements obtained from surface water corals
(Tisnérat-Laborde et al, 2013).
In addition to providing constraints on the air–sea transfer of 14C, our work provides
information on the thermohaline circulation and the ventilation of the deep waters to
constrain the degree to which the NEMO-MED12 can reproduce correctly the main
hydrographic features of the Mediterranean Sea circulation and its variations estimated from
corals 14C time series measurements.
This study is part of the work carried out to assess the robustness of the NEMO-MED12
model, which will be used to study the evolution of the climate and its effect on the
biogeochemical cycles in the Mediterranean Sea, and to improve our ability to predict
the future evolution of the Mediterranean Sea under the increasing anthropogenic
pressure. |
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