Chlorofluorocarbon - Tracer of Ocean Circulation

Tracer of Ocean Circulation

Since the time history of CFC concentrations in the atmosphere is relatively well known, they have provided an important constraint on ocean circulation. CFCs dissolve in seawater at the ocean surface and are subsequently transported into the ocean interior. Since CFCs are conservative, their concentration in the ocean interior reflects simply the convolution of their atmospheric time evolution and ocean circulation and mixing.

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