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Sensing the ocean biological carbon pump from space: A review of capabilities, concepts, research gaps and future developments

Journal

EARTH-SCIENCE REVIEWS
Volume 217, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2021.103604

Keywords

Ocean; Carbon cycle; Satellite; Biology

Funding

  1. European Space Agency (ESA) project Biological Pump and Carbon Exchange Processes (BICEP)
  2. Simons Foundation Project Collaboration on Computational Biogeochemical Modeling of Marine Ecosystems (CBIOMES) [549947]
  3. UK National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO)
  4. Ocean Colour Component of the Climate Change Initiative of the European Space Agency (ESA)
  5. NASA [80NSSC19K0297, NNH15ZDA01N-OBB]
  6. California State University San Marcos

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Carbon plays a central role in Earth's climate and life, with the ocean's biological carbon pump crucial for regulating atmospheric CO2 concentration. Satellite remote sensing is essential for monitoring the ocean carbon cycle, providing high temporal and spatial resolution views of the surface ocean. Integrating satellite observations with ecosystem models and field measurements can lead to a more comprehensive understanding of the ocean carbon cycle.
The element carbon plays a central role in climate and life on Earth. It is capable of moving among the geosphere, cryosphere, atmosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere. This flow of carbon is referred to as the Earth's carbon cycle. It is also intimately linked to the cycling of other elements and compounds. The ocean plays a fundamental role in Earth's carbon cycle, helping to regulate atmospheric CO2 concentration. The ocean biological carbon pump (OBCP), defined as a set of processes that transfer organic carbon from the surface to the deep ocean, is at the heart of the ocean carbon cycle. Monitoring the OBCP is critical to understanding how the Earth's carbon cycle is changing. At present, satellite remote sensing is the only tool available for viewing the entire surface ocean at high temporal and spatial scales. In this paper, we review methods for monitoring the OBCP with a focus on satellites. We begin by providing an overview of the OBCP, defining and describing the pools of carbon in the ocean, and the processes controlling fluxes of carbon between the pools, from the surface to the deep ocean, and among ocean, land and atmosphere. We then examine how field measurements, from ship and autonomous platforms, complement satellite observations, provide validation points for satellite products and lead to a more complete view of the OBCP than would be possible from satellite observations alone. A thorough analysis is then provided on methods used for monitoring the OBCP from satellite platforms, covering current capabilities, concepts and gaps, and the requirement for uncertainties in satellite products. We finish by discussing the potential for producing a satellite-based carbon budget for the oceans, the advantages of integrating satellite-based observations with ecosystem models and field measurements, and future opportunities in space, all with a view towards bringing satellite observations into the limelight of ocean carbon research.

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