Peter Landschützer – My research is related to carbon dioxide (CO2) exchanges between the ocean and the atmosphere. I am interested in oceanic surface water observations taken by different vessels (ships of opportunity, sailing boats like Iodysséus, research boats, and more).
The crucial parameter is the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) because the air-sea exchanges are directly proportional to the difference between the partial pressures of those two environments.
The atmosphere is somewhat easier to study than the ocean because atmospheric CO2 is fairly homogeneously distributed. The ocean, however, is not homogeneous; rather, it is separated into different zones with varying biogeochemical characteristics due to currents, differing biotopes, and other factors.
Knowing the partial pressure of CO2 is an exercise with real-world consequences; this information allows us to extrapolate CO2 fluxes from the air to the ocean, corresponding to the quantity of CO2 absorbed by the ocean.