CARINA (CARbon IN the Atlantic), as the database is called, is truly the result of an international effort, and several scientists from the Bjerknes Centre have been central in establishing the new database. It has turned out to be a huge success, securing accessibility and safe storage of marine carbon data collected at 188 cruises from the Bering Strait, through the Arctic Ocean, the Nordic Seas and the Atlantic Ocean to the Southern Ocean, and will be a key resource for future marine carbon science.
International effort
CARINA was first initiated in 1999, aiming for a database of marine carbon data from research cruises in the North Atlantic, but because of funding issues the effort went dormant after a few years. With the EU Integrated Project CarboOcean (coordinated by the Bjerknes Centre), fresh funding became available in 2005, and a group of European and U.S. scientists decided to build on the foundations and expand CARINA into a consistent and well documented database of carbon variables collected at research cruises, covering the Arctic, Atlantic and Southern oceans.
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| The map shows the station locations of the data included in CARINA (red dots and lines) |
From here on, CARINA quickly evolved into an international groundbreaking venture, and the CARINA data holdings increased from 30 to 188 campaigns, with scientists from all across Europe and the U.S. subjecting these data to higher level quality control, including development of novel techniques for highly automated analyses of data quality and consistency, and for sharing this information over the web. A detailed account of the quality control and data assembly is provided through a series of articles appearing in a special issue of Earth System Science Data (see reference below).
Ensuring future credibility
The CARINA project was a response to the increasing recognition among scientists of the need to get their data out of the drawers and into permanently archived open-access databases. This practice will ensure that future generations have an instrumental record of climate variables, is important for securing the credibility of climate science, and opens up new avenues for research and collaboration.
The CARINA data are available through the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre at: http://cdiac.ornl.gov/oceans/CARINA/Carina_inv.html
Bjerknes people involved: Are Olsen, Emil Jeansson, Eva Falck, Ingunn Skjelvan, Abdirahman Omar, Richard Bellerby, Benjamin Pfeil and Truls Johannessen.
Reference:
CARINA: a consistent carbon-relevant database for the Arctic, Atlantic and Southern Oceans, Editor(s): T. Tanhua, A. Olsen, M. Hoppema, and V. Gouretski, Earth System Sciences Data 2009-2010.