Our main objective is to leverage the constraints from glint OCO-2 data and from atmospheric oxygen (O2) data, in particular the NASA atom program and scripps network, to quantify the ocean carbon…

This federal contract award, valued at $97,073.00, was issued by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The objective is to leverage data from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) and atmospheric oxygen (O2) measurements to quantify the ocean's carbon flux response to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, which is a major driver of year-to-year variations in atmospheric carbon dioxide. The contract supports research to better understand the processes behind the observed increase in the ocean carbon sink during the 2015-2016 El Niño event. This work has important implications for improving predictions of ENSO's impacts on the global carbon cycle. The contract does not have a set-aside designation, reflecting Scripps' status as a large educational institution. Scripps is a renowned oceanographic research center that frequently collaborates with federal agencies like NASA, NOAA, and the Department of Defense through both contracts and grants.

Our main objective is to leverage the constraints from glint OCO-2 data and from atmospheric oxygen (O2) data, in particular the NASA atom program and scripps network, to quantify the ocean carbon flux response to EL nino-southern oscillation (enso). Enso is the main source of year-to-year fluctuations in atmospheric CO2. The ocean accounts for 15 to 50% of these interannual variations (i.e 0.5-1 PGC/y). During the 2015/2016 EL nino event, glint OCO-2 data detected a strong decrease of 1 PPM in column CO2 over the central equatorial pacific, which is attributed to an increase in the ocean sink. Yet, the magnitude of this increase in the ocean sink and the processes driving IT remain largely unknown. These uncertainties have far reaching implications for our understanding of the carbon cycle and its response to climate variability. First, the stronger ocean sink competes with the weaker land sink observed during EL nino events and impact the detection and attribution of the land sink variability. Second, uncertainties in the driving mechanisms strongly limit seasonal and long term prediction of enso impacts.