Estimations and Long-term Trend of Sea-to-air Dimethyl Sulfide (DMS) Flux using Satellite Observation Data

Abstract

: The long-term linear trend of global sea-to-air dimethyl sulfide (DMS) flux was analyzed over a 16-year time span (2000~2015), based on satellite observation data. The emission rates of DMS (i.e. DMS flux) in the global ocean were estimated from sea surface DMS concentrations, which were constructed with chlorophyll a (Chl-a) concentrations and mixed layer depths (MLD), and transfer velocity from sea to air, which was parameterized with sea surface wind (SSW) and sea surface temperature (SST). In general, the DMS flux in the global ocean exhibited a gradual decreasing pattern from 2000 (a total of 12.1 Tg/yr) to 2015 (10.7 Tg/yr). For the latitude band (10 o interval between 0 o and 60 o ), the DMS flux at the low latitude of the Northern (NH) and Southern hemisphere (SH) was significantly higher than that at the middle latitude. The seasonal mean DMS flux was highest in winter followed by in summer in both hemispheres. From the long-term analysis with the Mann-Kendall (MK) statistical test, a clear downward trend of DMS flux was predicted to be broad over the global ocean during the study period (NH: − 0.001~ − 0.036 µmol/m 2 /day per year, SH: − 0.011~ − 0.051 µmol/m 2 /day per year). These trend values were statistically significant (p < 0.05) for most of the latitude bands. The magnitude of the downward trend of DMS flux at the low latitude in the NH was somewhat higher than that at the middle latitude during most seasons, and vice versa for the SH. The spatio-temporal characteristics of DMS flux and its long-term trend were likely to be primarily affected not only by the SSW (high positive correlation of r = 0.687) but also in part by the SST (r = 0.685).