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Quantification of Discharge-Specific Effects on Dissolved Organic Matter Export From Major Arctic Rivers From 1982 Through 2019

Long-term increases in Arctic river discharge have been well documented, and observations in the six largest Arctic rivers show strong positive correlations between dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration, river discharge, and chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) content. Here, observations of DOC and CDOM collected from 2009-2019 by the Arctic Great Rivers Observatory were used to estimate chromophoric DOC (CDOC) concentrations in the Kolyma, Lena, Mackenzie, Ob’, Yenisey, and Yukon Rivers. All rivers but the Mackenzie showed significant positive correlations between annual watershed runoff and the proportion of the DOC that is chromophoric. Historical estimates of DOC and CDOC export were calculated for 1982-2019 by extrapolating the DOC and CDOC concentration – discharge relationships from 2009-2019 as a hindcast modeled estimate. For the six rivers combined, modeled DOC and CDOC export increased, but CDOC increased faster than total DOC. The Lena and Ob’ Rivers showed significant increases in DOC export individually, with annual trends of 39.1 and 20.4 Gg C yr -1 respectively. November-April (winter) DOC and CDOC export increased in all rivers but the Yenisey, with the hindcast winter Kolyma export increasing by more than 20% per decade. There were no significant trends in discharge or associated DOC and CDOC fluxes during the observational period from 2009-2019; only when hindcasted values driven by changes in river discharge were analyzed did trends in DOC and CDOC emerge. This demonstrates how shifting seasonal distributions and increases in discharge can drive changes in DOC and CDOC concentrations and export, independent of other environmental factors.

carbon cycle

Simulating PACE Global Ocean Radiances

The NASA PACE mission is a hyper-spectral radiometer planned for launch in the next decade. It is intended to provide new information on ocean biogeochemical constituents by parsing the details of high resolution spectral absorption and scattering. It is the first of its kind for global applications and as such, poses challenges for design and operation. To support pre-launch mission development and assess on-orbit capabilities, the NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office has developed a dynamic simulation of global water-leaving radiances, using an ocean model containing multiple ocean phytoplankton groups, particulate detritus, particulate inorganic carbon (PIC), and chromophoric dissolved organic carbon (CDOC) along with optical absorption and scattering processes at 1 nm spectral resolution. The purpose here is to assess the skill of the dynamic model and derived global radiances. Global bias, uncertainty, and correlation are derived using available modern satellite radiances at moderate spectral resolution. Total chlorophyll, PIC, and the absorption coefficient of CDOC (aCDOC), are simultaneously assimilated to improve the fidelity of the optical constituent fields. A 5-year simulation showed statistically significant (P < 0.05) comparisons of chlorophyll (r = 0.869), PIC (r = 0.868), and a CDOC (r =0.890) with satellite data. Additionally, diatoms (r = 0.890), cyanobacteria (r = 0.732), and coccolithophores (r = 0.716) were significantly correlated with in situ data. Global assimilated distributions of optical constituents were coupled with a radiative transfer model (Ocean-Atmosphere Spectral Irradiance Model, OASIM) to estimate normalized water-leaving radiances at 1 nm for the spectral range 250-800 nm. These unassimilated radiances were within 0.074 mW/sq cm/micron/sr of MODIS-Aqua radiances at 412, 443, 488, 531, 547, and 667 nm. This difference represented a bias of 10.4% (model low). A mean correlation of 0.706 (P < 0.05) was found with global distributions of MODIS radiances. These results suggest skill in the global assimilated model and resulting radiances. The reported error characterization suggests that the global dynamical simulation can support some aspects of mission design and analysis. For example, the high spectral resolution of the simulation supports investigations of band selection. The global nature of the radiance representations supports investigations of satellite observing scenarios. Global radiances at bands not available in current and past missions support investigations of mission capability. PACE, ocean color, water-leaving radiances, biogeochemical model, radiative transfer model

PIC

Optimized Profile Retrievals of Aerosol Microphysical Properties from Simulated Spaceborne Multiwavelength Lidar

This work is an expanded study of one previously published onretrievals of aerosol microphysical properties from space-borne multiwavelengthlidarmeasurements. The earlier studiesand this one weredone in the framework of the NASA Aerosol-Clouds-Ecosystems (now the Aerosol Clouds Convection and Precipitation) NASA mission. The focus here is on the capabilities of a simulated spacebornemultiwavelengthlidar system for retrieving aerosol complex refractive index (m = mr+ imi) and spectral single scattering albedo (SSA(λ)), although other bulk parameters such as effective (reff) radius and particle volume (V) and surface (S) concentrations are also studied. The novelty presented here is the use of recently published, case dependent optimized-constraints on the microphysical retrievals using three backscattering coefficients (β) at 355, 532 and 1064 nm and two extinction coefficients (α) at 355 and 532 nm, typically known as the stand-alone 3β+2α lidar inversion. Case-dependent optimized-constraints (CDOC) limit the ranges of refractive index, both real (mr) and imaginary (mi) parts, and of radii that are permitted in the retrievals. Such constraints are selected directly from the 3β+2α41measurements through an analysis of the relationship between spectral dependence of aerosol extinction-to-backscatter ratios (LR) and the Ångström exponent of extinction. The analyses presented here for different sets ofsize distributions and refractive indices reveal that the direct determination of CDOCareonly feasible for cases where the uncertaintiesin the input optical data areless than 15 %.Forthe same simulated spacebornesystem and yield than in Whiteman et al., (2018), we demonstrated that the use of CDOC as essential for the retrievals of refractive index and also largely improved retrieval of bulk parameters. A discussion of the global representativeness of CDOC is presented using simulated lidar data from a 24-hour satellite track using GEOS model output to initialize the lidar simulator.We found that CDOCare representative of many aerosol mixtures in spite of some outliers (e.g. highly hydrated particles) associatedwith the assumptions of bimodal size distributions and of the same refractive index for fine and coarse modes. Moreover, sensitivity tests performed using synthetic data reveal that retrievals of imaginary refractive index (mi) and SSA are extremely sensitive to β(355).

NASA Aerosol-Clouds-Ecosystems

Analysis of ocean color components within stratified and well-mixed waters of the western English Channel

In situ pigment and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) data from two distinct hydrographic regions of the western English Channel are used to explore the possible marine DOC contamination of the past satellite estimates of phytoplankton biomass. To compare with field measurements, the individual spectral contributions of DOC, pigments, and water to the total diffuse attenuation coefficient, K(sub par), are summed on a quantum basis within stratified waters near Plymouth, England; and for the spectrally averaged diffuse attenuation coefficient, K(sub d), on an energy basis within tidally mixed waters near Roscoff, France. In addition, coastal zone color scanner (CZCS) images from 1979 to 1986 were used to compute DOC concentrations for comparison with in situ values. Our analysis suggests that almost 50% of the color signal of satellite-sensed pigments may be attributed to absorption by marine colored DOC (CDOC) within the English Channel. These results compare favorably to the in situ DOC measurements off Plymouth, but not to off-Roscoff measurements, suggesting that there may be more CDOC in the stratified waters and more nonabsorbing DOC in the tidally mixed waters.

Hochmann, Herschel T.