Halocarbons (water) measured during Maria S. Merian cruise MSM18/3

Halocarbons from oceanic sources contribute to halogens in the troposphere, and can be transported into the stratosphere where they take part in ozone depletion. This paper presents distribution and sources in the equatorial Atlantic from June and July 2011 of the four compounds bromoform (CHBr3), dibromomethane (CH2Br2), methyl iodide (CH3I) and diiodomethane (CH2I2). Enhanced biological production during the Atlantic Cold Tongue (ACT) season, indicated by phytoplankton pigment concentrations, led to elevated concentrations of CHBr3 of up to 44.7 and up to 9.2 pmol/L for CH2Br2 in surface water, which is comparable to other tropical upwelling systems. While both compounds correlated very well with each other in the surface water, CH2Br2 was often more elevated in greater depth than CHBr3, which showed maxima in the vicinity of the deep chlorophyll maximum. The deeper maximum of CH2Br2 indicates an additional source in comparison to CHBr3 or a slower degradation of CH2Br2. Concentrations of CH3I of up to 12.8 pmol/L in the surface water were measured. In contrary to expectations of a predominantly photochemical source in the tropical ocean, its distribution was mostly in agreement with biological parameters, indicating a biological source. CH2I2 was very low in the near surface water with maximum concentrations of only 3.7 pmol/L. CH2I2 showed distinct maxima in deeper waters similar to CH2Br2. For the first time, diapycnal fluxes of the four halocarbons from the upper thermocline into and out of the mixed layer were determined. These fluxes were low in comparison to the halocarbon sea-to-air fluxes. This indicates that despite the observed maximum concentrations at depth, production in the surface mixed layer is the main oceanic source for all four compounds and one of the main driving factors of their emissions into the atmosphere in the ACT-region. The calculated production rates of the compounds in the mixed layer are 34 ± 65 pmol/m**3/h for CHBr3, 10 ± 12 pmol/m**3/h for CH2Br2, 21 ± 24 pmol/m**3/h for CH3I and 384 ± 318 pmol/m**3/h for CH2I2 determined from 13 depth profiles.

Mixed layer heat and salinity budgets during the onset of the 2011 Atlantic cold tongue

The mixed layer (ML) temperature and salinity changes in the central tropical Atlantic have been studied by a dedicated experiment (Cold Tongue Experiment (CTE)) carried out from May to July 2011. The CTE was based on two successive research cruises, a glider swarm, and moored observations. The acquired in situ data sets together with satellite, reanalysis, and assimilation model data were used to evaluate box-averaged ML heat and salinity budgets for two subregions: (1) the western equatorial Atlantic cold tongue (ACT) (23°-10°W) and (2) the region north of the ACT. The strong ML heat loss in the ACT region during the CTE was found to be the result of the balance of warming due to net surface heat flux and cooling due to zonal advection and diapycnal mixing. The northern region was characterized by weak cooling and the dominant balance of net surface heat flux and zonal advection. A strong salinity increase occurred at the equator, 10°W, just before the CTE. During the CTE, ML salinity in the ACT region slightly increased. Largest contributions to the ML salinity budget were zonal advection and the net surface freshwater flux. While essential for the ML heat budget in the ACT region, diapycnal mixing played only a minor role for the ML salinity budget. In the region north of the ACT, the ML freshened at the beginning of the CTE due to precipitation, followed by a weak salinity increase. Zonal advection changed sign contributing to ML freshening at the beginning of the CTE and salinity increase afterward.