Global relationships of total alkalinity with salinity and temperature in surface waters of the world's oceans

Abstract

A simple function of sea surface salinity (SSS) and temperature (SST) in the form A(T) = a + b (SSS - 35) + c (SSS - 35)(2) + d (SST - 20) + e (SST - 20)(2) fits surface total alkalinity (A(T)) data for each of five oceanographic regimes within an area-weighted uncertainty of +/- 8.1 mu mol kg(-1) (1 sigma). Globally coherent surface A(T) data (n = 5,692) used to derive regional correlations of A(T) with SSS and SST were collected during the global carbon survey in the 1990s. Such region-specific A(T) algorithms presented herein enable the estimation of the global distribution of surface A(T) when observations of SSS and SST are available.