Role of mesoscale eddies in the global ocean uptake of anthropogenic CO2

Mesoscale eddies play a fundamental role in ocean dynamics particularly in the Southern Ocean. Global-scale tracer simulations are typically made at coarse resolution without explicitly modeling eddies. Here we ask what role do eddies play in ocean uptake, storage, and meridional transport of anthropogenic CO2, CFC-11 and bomb Δ14C. We made global anthropogenic transient tracer simulations in coarse-resolution, ORCA2, and eddy-permitting, ORCA05 and ORCA025, versions of the ocean modelling system NEMO. We focus on the Southern Ocean where tracer air-sea fluxes are largest. Eddies have little effect on bomb Δ14C uptake and storage. Yet for CFC-11 and anthropogenic CO2, increased eddy activity reduces southern extra-tropical uptake by 28% and 25% respectively, thereby providing better agreement with observations. It is shown that the discrepancies in the equilibration times between the three tracers determine their respective sensitivities to the model horizontal resolution. Applying Gent and McWilliams (1990) (GM) parameterization of eddies in the non-eddying version of the model does improve results, but not enough. An in-depth investigation of the mechanisms by which eddies affect the uptake of the transient tracers shows that including mesoscale eddies leads to an overall reduction in the Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) ventilation, and modifies substantially the spatial distribution of their source regions. This investigation reveals also that the GM parameterization still overestimates the ventilation and the subduction of AAIW in the Indian Ocean where the simulated mixed layer is particularly deep during the winter. This work suggests that most current coarse-resolution models may overestimate the ventilation of AAIW in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean. This study shows also that the use of the GM parameterization may be of limited utility where mixed layer is relatively deep and confirms the general need for a more adequate parameterization that represents both the effects of eddies in the ocean interior and in the mixed layer. Finally,we attempt to evaluate the contribution of mesoscale eddies to the meridional transport of anthropogenic CO2 and CFC-11 at the global scale. The mesoscale variability is found to little affect the annual-mean transport and its traditional hydrographic-based estimates except between the tropics and in the Southern Ocean. In these regions, the meridional distribution of the 'rectified' eddy transport of CFC-11 and anthropogenic CO2 shows large discrepancies. (author)