Work Package 7 “Ocean Climate Indicators Demonstrator” (WP7) assesses the ocean role in climate through new ocean climate indicators determined in collaboration with EuroSea Work Packages 2 and 4. WP7 evaluates the economic value of the ocean carbon sink using a combined observing, integration, and dissemination approach. A dedicated task is focusing on carbon fluxes and uptake in the northwest Atlantic (Labrador and Irminger Seas) and the Western Mediterranean, two important areas for carbon uptake. The observations are augmented by Deep-Argo floats from EuroSea to generate user-relevant ocean-climate indicators.

WP7 develops information products linking ocean color data with in situ data from autonomous platforms, such as BGC-Argo, moored instrumentation and long-range autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) deployed in EuroSea. ASVs equipped with instrumentation for high-quality carbon measurements will be sent out on a multi-month pilot mission to integrate carbon measurements, using Time-Series stations in the North (Cape Verde Ocean Observatory – CVOO) and South Atlantic (Fernando de Noronha Observatory – FNEO) for validation. An ocean color satellite-based bio-regionalization of the tropical Atlantic will be established. Biogeochemical linkages between surface physical and biogeochemical constraints and carbon surface fluxes will be established empirically through neural networks that will serve to estimate carbon fluxes for the tropical Atlantic.