Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Unexpected Outgassing of C02 in Southern Ocean means Carbon Sink is LESS than we Thought…
The Southern Ocean carbon sink is massive. About half of human caused CO2 emissions are absorbed into the oceans, the majority in the very cold Southern Oceans near Antarctica.
Southern Oceans and Antarctica are very desolate, especially in the 24/7 darkness of the southern hemisphere winter. Thus, data on absorption of CO2 into the water is very sparse and incomplete.
In this new peer-reviewed paper, the new techniques using satellite based LIDAR (like radar, but with light) allows accurate measurements of the carbon sink in the Southern Oceans, even in winter.
Data collected over the last few decades comes to the inescapable and surprising conclusion that CO2 outgassing in some regions is actually 40% higher than we thought, meaning that the southern ocean sink is not as powerful as we previously thought.
In this video, I chat about this new information.
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. As well as my website, and YouTube, you can find me on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit (multiple climate channels within), Quora, TikTok, Discord, Mastodon, Twitch, Vimeo, Bluesky, TruthSocial, Threads, Substack, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc...
Links:
Peer-reviewed research article in the journal Science Advances: open source (free)
Substantially underestimated winter CO2 sources of the Southern Ocean
science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/sciadv.aea0024
Abstract
The size and control mechanism of the Southern Ocean’s carbon fluxes remain highly uncertain due to sparse winter observations. Here, we integrate satellite light detection and ranging (LIDAR) measurements with machine learning to assess the Southern Ocean air-sea CO2 fluxes between 2007 and 2020. We reveal that CO 2 out gassing south of 50°S was underestimated by up to 40% in previous studies. While the midlatitude Southern Ocean (30° to50°S) strengthens as a carbon sink, the high-latitude region (50° to 90°S) shows Southern Annular Mode (SAM)–modulated alternation between uptake and outgassing. The air-sea CO2 partial pressure difference (ΔpCO2) increas-ngly dominates flux variability over wind-driven transfer velocity. We propose a framework involving three latitudinal loops with differing pCO2 controls: (i) Antarctic (salinity/sea ice), (ii) polar front (atmospheric CO2 /chlorophyll), and(iii) subpolar (sea surface temperature/CO2). The findings underscore the winter processes’ critical role and necessitate year- round observations to understand Southern Ocean’s global carbon cycle impact.
Earth nullschool view of Southern Oceans:
earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/250hPa/orthographic=-91.32,-97.44,561/loc=-103.146,-49.771
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. As well as my website, and YouTube, you can find me on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit (multiple climate channels within), Quora, TikTok, Discord, Mastodon, Twitch, Vimeo, Bluesky, TruthSocial, Threads, Substack, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc...
Unexpected Outgassing of C02 in Southern Ocean means Carbon Sink is LESS than we Thought…
The Southern Ocean carbon sink is massive. About half of human caused CO2 emissions are absorbed into the oceans, the majority in the very cold Southern Oceans near Antarctica.
Southern Oceans and Antarctica are very desolate, especially in the 24/7 darkness of the southern hemisphere winter. Thus, data on absorption of CO2 into the water is very sparse and incomplete.
In this new peer-reviewed paper, the new techniques using satellite based LIDAR (like radar, but with light) allows accurate measurements of the carbon sink in the Southern Oceans, even in winter.
Data collected over the last few decades comes to the inescapable and surprising conclusion that CO2 outgassing in some regions is actually 40% higher than we thought, meaning that the southern ocean sink is not as powerful as we previously thought.
In this video, I chat about this new information.
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. As well as my website, and YouTube, you can find me on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit (multiple climate channels within), Quora, TikTok, Discord, Mastodon, Twitch, Vimeo, Bluesky, TruthSocial, Threads, Substack, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc...
Links:
Peer-reviewed research article in the journal Science Advances: open source (free)
Substantially underestimated winter CO2 sources of the Southern Ocean
science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/sciadv.aea0024
Abstract
The size and control mechanism of the Southern Ocean’s carbon fluxes remain highly uncertain due to sparse winter observations. Here, we integrate satellite light detection and ranging (LIDAR) measurements with machine learning to assess the Southern Ocean air-sea CO2 fluxes between 2007 and 2020. We reveal that CO 2 out gassing south of 50°S was underestimated by up to 40% in previous studies. While the midlatitude Southern Ocean (30° to50°S) strengthens as a carbon sink, the high-latitude region (50° to 90°S) shows Southern Annular Mode (SAM)–modulated alternation between uptake and outgassing. The air-sea CO2 partial pressure difference (ΔpCO2) increas-ngly dominates flux variability over wind-driven transfer velocity. We propose a framework involving three latitudinal loops with differing pCO2 controls: (i) Antarctic (salinity/sea ice), (ii) polar front (atmospheric CO2 /chlorophyll), and(iii) subpolar (sea surface temperature/CO2). The findings underscore the winter processes’ critical role and necessitate year- round observations to understand Southern Ocean’s global carbon cycle impact.
Earth nullschool view of Southern Oceans:
earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/250hPa/orthographic=-91.32,-97.44,561/loc=-103.146,-49.771
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. As well as my website, and YouTube, you can find me on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit (multiple climate channels within), Quora, TikTok, Discord, Mastodon, Twitch, Vimeo, Bluesky, TruthSocial, Threads, Substack, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc...
