ISLSCP Initiative II

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Carbon Data

Global River Fluxes of Carbon and Sediments to the Oceans

The River Carbon Flux data sets represent estimates for the riverine export of carbon and of sediments. This "oceanic data set" includes the amounts of carbon and of sediments that are discharged to the oceans by rivers for each coastal grid point which receives river inputs. The resolution of these data sets is 2.5 x 2.0 degree longitude/ latitude. They have been created by coupling the above described data sets with a global river routing scheme, following the assumption that the river fluxes are transported in a conservative manner from the headwaters to the river mouths. The units of these data are TgC/yr for the carbon fluxes, and Tg/yr for the sediment fluxes.
      The ocean data were also processed into maps, 720 x 360 (0.5 degree). This was done by plotting each point in a 5 x 4 grid on a pre-existing land/sea map, where water is -99 and land is -88. These files have been given the same names as the regular ocean data, except that they end in "_map.asc", instead of ".dat".

This data set is related to the Atmospheric CO2 Consumption by Continential Erosion data set.

Data Provider: Wolfgang Ludwig, Philippe Amiotte-Suchet, Jean-Luc Probst

Data Files (ISLSCP II Disc #1)

Data Set Documentation

Image Viewing Tutorial

File Information

The files have been compressed using the PKZip program. Each uncompressed file contains space-delimited ASCII text.

Oceanic Data Tables:
These ASCII tables contain 4 columns: longitude, latitude, carbon or sediment fluxes, and the continental area in km2 that is drained to the grid. Great values indicate that the grid is in front of a large river basin. The flux value is represented in scientific "E-notation". The structure of these files is different since only the coastal grid elements receiving river inputs are included.

  File Name                 Description
  ---------                 -----------
  ocean_flux_co2rw_2d.dat   bicarbonate export (atmospheric origin)
  ocean_flux_doc_2d.dat     dissolved organic carbon (DOC) export
  ocean_flux_hco3_2d.dat    bicarbonate export
  ocean_flux_poc_2d.dat     particulate organic carbon (POC) export
  ocean_flux_tss_2d.dat     sediment export

Oceanic Data Maps:
The Oceanic data maps come in two resolutions: half-degree (hd) with 720 values per line and 360 lines, and one-degree (1d) with 360 values per line and 180 lines. The files are all in ASCII format with a simgle space separating the values. Missing ocean points are represented by -99 and missing land points are -88.

  File Name                     Description
  ---------                     -----------
  ocean_flux_co2rw_hd_map.asc   bicarbonate export (atmospheric origin)
  ocean_flux_doc_hd_map.asc     dissolved organic carbon (DOC) export
  ocean_flux_hco3_hd_map.asc    bicarbonate export
  ocean_flux_poc_hd_map.asc     particulate organic carbon (POC) export
  ocean_flux_tss_hd_map.asc     sediment export

Related Pages:
    ISLSCP Initiative II Home
        General Data Overview
            Carbon Data Overview
                Global River Fluxes of Carbon and Sediments

Revision Date: November 29, 2004