Data Summary

The transient tracers in the ocean (TTO) study was an experiment to investigate the manner and time scale of ocean mixing, as deduced from the distribution of radiochemical tracers injected into the oceans from nuclear bomb tests during the period 1958-1962. The data provide a crucial test for models of oceanic CO₂ uptake. Virtually all the successful models of oceanic CO₂ uptake rely on the tracer approach since there is no comparable direct time series of ocean CO₂ measurements as is the case for atmospheric CO₂.

A total of 250 hydrographic stations were occupied during the TTO study. Approximately 9000 individual water samples were taken, with most being analyzed for salinity, oxygen, and nutrients. Over 3000 samples for tritium analysis were collected and over 1000 samples for radiocarbon were taken.

Any combination of two of the four variables: pH, pCO₂, alkalinity, and total CO₂ permits a complete description of the carbon dioxide system, within the limits of the accuracy of the thermodynamic constants required for the calculation.

Two data files are provided in this NDP. One file is the origional TTO data which is formatted as described in Table 5. The second data file is a revision of the original data which contains revised estimates of total CO₂ and also contains pCO₂ values.