Funding Source: National Science Foundation and internal student support – The ocean takes up about 25% of the carbon dioxide that is emitted by fossil fuel burning – so without the ocean, the atmosphere would be heating up even more quickly. The first step in this oceanic uptake process is air-sea gas exchange — the crossing of the molecules of carbon dioxide (or other gases) from the atmosphere into the ocean. One of the aims of my research is to improve our understanding of and ability to model air-sea gas exchange. To that end, I am conducting research in the nation’s largest wind-wave tank at the Rosenstiel School of Marine Science at the University of Miami. During the summer, my students and I set up two mass spectrometers on top of the tank and measure noble gases, oxygen, and carbon dioxide within the tank water at a range of wave conditions at wind speeds ranging from 20 to 80 miles per hour. We are using these gases to understand how bubbles and high wind speeds affect air sea gas exchange.