The ocean changes the global atmosphere

The ocean surface resembles a vast chemical reactor where many heterogeneous and photochemically (i.e. started by solar radiation) chemical and biological processes take place. The characterization of the biogeochemical coupling of the ocean and atmosphere has to rely on a comprehensive understanding of these processes. This also includes knowledge about reactions occuring on ice surfaces and inside or at the surface of aerosols and bubbles. Moreover, processes like dust input from the atmosphere (e.g., Sahara dust) have to be taken into account as well. Therefore, answering the question about the potentially important role and possible feedback mechanisms induced by these processes in a future world with expected changes in environmental forcing (e.g., change of atmospheric CO₂ concentration, of aerosol production, of dust deposition, and of radiative forcing) is difficult.

Our goal is to gain a better understanding of the role of the ocean surface with respect to ocean-atmosphere coupling, which is certainly more than just providing a boundary layer for non-reactive gas exchange. Systematic and detailed studies on potential keysteps including investigations on the scale of molecular interactions and structure, will serve as a database to derive a broader macroscopic picture of the ongoing chemistry. In many cases, however, the most important keysteps are still unknown and, consequently, as a start we have to identify potentially important sub-processes in the first place.

 

Contact

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• Prof. Friedrich Temps

  Institution:

  Institut für Physikalische Chemie, CAU

  Phone:

  +49 431 880-1702

  E-mail:

  temps@phc.uni-kiel.de

• Prof. Doug Wallace

  Institution:

  Leibniz-Institut für Meereswissenschaften (IFM-GEOMAR)

  Phone:

  +49 431 600-4200

  E-mail:

  dwallace@ifm-geomar.de