Satellite-derived surface water pCO2 and air–sea CO2 fluxes in the northern South China Sea in summer

An empirical approach is presented for the estimation of the partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) and air–sea CO2 fluxes in the northern South China Sea in summer using satellite-derived sea surface temperatures (SSTs), chlorophyll-a (Chl a) concentrations, and wind fields. Two algorithms were tested. The first used an SST-dependent equation, and the other involved the introduction of Chl a. Regression equations were developed for summer based on in situ data obtained in July, 2004. Using the monthly average SST and Chl a fields derived from the advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) and the SeaWiFS (sea-viewing wide field of view sensor), respectively, the monthly pCO2 fields were computed. The derived pCO2 was compared with the shipboard pCO2 observations conducted in July, 2000. This resulted in a root-mean-square error of 4.6 μatm, suggesting that the satellite-derived pCO2 was in general agreement with the in situ observations. The air–sea CO2 flux was further computed with the aid of the monthly mean QuikSCAT wind speed. We contend that more shipboard data are necessary for refining the empirical algorithms and reducing the uncertainty in the results.