https://www.oceanexpert.org/expert/rfine

B.A.M.A.Ph.D.

Research

I study the role of the oceans in climate change occurring on time scales up to decades. The research involves understanding the physical processes that determine the capacity of the oceans to take up atmospheric constituents, such as carbon-dioxide. On time scales of decades, there are two main physical processes that affect the way the oceans and atmosphere interact. First is by direct air-sea exchange, where we use satellite and direct oceanographicobservations to map the global air-sea flux of carbon-dioxide. Then once the atmospheric gases are in the oceans, we study how fast they mix. We participate in several international Global Change programs. Our contribution includes the measurements of chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) to study the rate at which the worlds ocans circulate. Although the major fate for CFCs is the stratosphere, a small amount dissolves as a gas in the surface waters of the ocean. The CFC concentrations are used to infer the rate at which atmosphreric gases are mixedinto the ocean interior.

English