PACIFICA

This synthesis activity was launched with a workshop entitled “Understanding North Pacific Carbon-Cycle Changes: A Data Synthesis and Modeling Workshop”, held in Seattle in June 2004. This workshop was sponsored by NOAA's Global Carbon Cycle Program with additional support from the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES), The Global Carbon Project (GCP), and the University of Washington Program on Climate Changes (UWPCC).

This workshop addressed 3 primary themes:

1. How are air-sea CO₂ fluxes in the North Pacific affected by different modes of variability?

2. How and why are the North Pacific distribution patterns of carbon, nutrients and oxygen in the water column changing with time?

3. What are the requirements for detecting a climate change signal in the North Pacific carbon cycle?

A special section of the Journal of Geophysical Research entitled “North Pacific Carbon Cycle Variability and Climate Change” was published in 2006 (C. Sabine and N. Gruber, guest editors, Introduction doi:10.1029/2006JC003532).

In 2005 this international collaboration was further formalized with the formation of the PICES Section on Carbon and Climate. The PICES CC-S has now initiated a major data synthesis effort of Pacific Ocean carbon data that were not previously available to the community. The leader of the PACIFICA group is M. Ishii (Japan). The data set now includes measurements from 265 cruises including 14 CLIVAR/CO₂ Repeat Hydrography Cruises and several repeat lines such as 137ºE, Line-P, station KNOT and A-line that were not in GLODAP. Efforts are currently underway to quality control these data and put them all into a common format. This project has adopted many of the methodologies developed by CARINA in the Atlantic including the use of standardized analysis tools. The quality controlled data set is expected to be completed in 2011. Once completed, the PACIFICA, CARINA and GLODAP data sets will be combined and released as GLODAP version 2.