Ship-based oceanographic surveys, timeseries, mooring, and satellite ocean colour sensors are widely used to understand open and coastal ocean biogeochemistry. Cloud cover, however, reduces the quality of satellite data, and in most cases, their sensors only observe the ocean’s surface and/or function only under specific conditions. Ship transects and static sampling platforms only sample small areas of the ocean; hence, they cannot provide sufficient coverage to resolve processes with high spatial or/and temporal variability. Autonomous Biogeochemical Argo (BGC-Argo) floats fill these data gaps by collecting data continuously year-round for several years, even during winter storms when oceanographic cruises are unfavourable.

The goal of the project is to better understand the relative role of the biogeochemical and physical controls on air-sea carbon and oxygen uptake in the Kuroshio Extension mode water formation region of the northwest Pacific Ocean. The project will involve the use of biogeochemical profiling float data, satellite observations, and ocean state estimate output. There will also be interaction with project co-PI Dr. Ivana Cerovečki at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who is in charge of the analysis of physical processes.