Independent Marine and Atmospheric Model Estimates of the Sea-air Flux of Dimethylsulfide in the Southern Ocean

Abstract

Marine and atmospheric models have been combined with data collected at the Cape Grim atmospheric baseline station, to estimate the flux of dimethylsulfide to the atmosphere during the spring‐summer period in the Subantarctic Southern Ocean in the vicinity of the Cape Grim baseline atmospheric monitoring station. The marine model predicts that production of phytoplankton and of dissolved DMS will increase during spring to reach a maximum in summer consistent with the data on atmospheric DMS. Local wind and sea temperature data have been used to calculate the DMS transfer velocity which was used to compute the sea‐to‐air flux of DMS. Independent predictions of the DMS flux using an atmospheric model and Cape Grim data are in excellent agreement with the marine based prediction.