The Carbon Dioxide Exchange Between the North Atlantic Ocean and the Atmosphere

An approximate distribution of carbon dioxide exchange rates between the atmosphere and the North Atlantic Ocean is obtained for each month of the year on the basis of oceanographic data from Böhnecke’s Atlas and the assumption that atmospheric carbon dioxide maintains uniformly the volume percentage of .03. The results indicate the direction in which such an even volume percentage must be changed to approach equilibrium.

Aside from other influences, the ocean-atmosphere exchange of carbon dioxide and the trajectories of tropospheric air masses combine to produce high carbon dioxide content in mT and cP air and low carbon dioxide content in mP air. Since water vapor is at a minimum in the continental polar anticyclones during the polar night, the carbon dioxide probably serves as an effective inhibitor of the outgoing infrared radiation. This inhibiting effect may well serve to limit the intensity of cooling during an ice age; it probably has much less significance during inter-glacial periods.