Carbon dioxide concentrations in surface water and the atmosphere during 1986--1989 NOAA/PMEL cruises in the Pacific and Indian Oceans

The carbonate system in seawater is one of the most complex and important topics in oceanography. The system has long interested many oceanographers from various fields because it plays a major role in all three subspheres of the earth (biosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere). Carbon dioxide is a soluble gas that dissolves in sea water. As a result, the oceans are a potential sink for the CO{sub 2}, produced by the burning of fossil fuels, and we seek to understand the role of the World Ocean in regulating atmospheric levels of CO{sub 2}. With refined determinations for the various dissociation constants of carbonic and boric acids in seawater and the advances in sophisticated instrumentation for measuring the carbonate parameters, our knowledge of the CO{sub 2}-carbonate system of the ocean has rapidly increased. Extensive oceanographic investigations have been carried out in the World Ocean. Those extensive studies, especially in physical oceanography, have provided an excellent foundation for other types of study, such as that of the CO{sub 2}-carbonate system. This document presents the results of quasi-continuously measured CO{sub 2} concentrations in surface water and the atmosphere during 5 Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory cruises in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.