Ten years after - The WOCE AMS radiocarbon program

The National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (NOSAMS) Facility is measuring all of the samples collected as part of the US WOCE Program - over 13,000 samples. We designed our extraction lines so that we also meas ure precise, oceanographically useful delta C-13-Sigma CO2 values. We have completed the analysis of samples from the Pacific and Southern Oceans and are processing those from the Indian Ocean now. At present, this constitute s the world's largest AMS data set. Reviews of the Pacific radiocarbon data are available and demonstrate the increased penetration of the "bomb signa l" into the water column since the 1970s. Stable isotope data are being com bined with those collected as part of NOAA's Ocean-Atmosphere Carbon Exchan ge Study to study the ocean's role in the anthropogenic CO2 cycle. The rela tionship of delta C-13 to other chemical tracers, e.g., PO4, O-2 and chloro fluorocarbons, will further our understanding of basic oceanographic proces ses. We present preliminary results from these studies as well as investiga te the relationship of C-14 to C-13 in the ocean. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.