Circulation tracers

Joly observed elevated "Ra activities in deep-sea sediments that he attributed to water column scavenging and removal processes. This hypothesis was later challenged with the hrst seawater °Th measurements (parent of "Ra), and these new results conhrmed that radium was instead actively migrating across the marine sediment-water interface. This seabed source stimulated much activity to use radium as a tracer for ocean circulation. Unfortunately, the utility of Ra as a deep ocean circulation tracer never came to full fruition as biological cycling has been repeatedly shown to have a strong and unpredictable effect on the vertical distribution of this isotope. 

Weapons testing, reprocessing (mostly Not widely used as circulation tracers but often... 

The latter two approaches are related because natural and artificial tracers are used to calibrate or evaluate ocean models. A key aspect of these tracers is that they provide independent information on timescale, either because they decay or are produced at some known rate, for example, due to radioactivity, or because they are released into the ocean with a known time history. The different chemical tracers can be roughly divided into two classes. Circulation tracers such as radiocarbon, tritium- He, and the chlorofluorocarbons are not strongly impacted by biogeochemical cycling and are used primarily to quantify physical advection and mixing... 

Some anthropogenically introduced radionuclides and synthetic compounds are useful as ocean circulation tracers. These include tritium, bomb radiocarbon and CFCs. 

As of this writing, it has not been possible to use the seismic data which defines the volume of the reservoir to also determine the joint stmcture. Extended flow testing is the most direct measure of the efficiency and sustainabiUty of energy recovery from the reservoir. The use of chemical tracers in the circulating fluid can also provide valuable supporting data with regard to the multiplicity of flow paths and the transit time of fluid within the reservoir (37). 

Circulation time The time necessary for complete mixing of a tracer gas in a space. 

Although the general circulation patterns are fairly well known, it is difficult to quantify the rates of the various flows. Abyssal circulation is generally quite slow and variable on short time scales. The calculation of the rate of formation of abyssal water is also fraught with uncertainty. Probably the most promising means of assigning the time dimension to oceanic processes is through the study of the distribution of radioactive chemical tracers. Difficulties associated with the interpretation of radioactive tracer distributions lie both in the models used, nonconservative interactions, and the difference between the time scale of the physical transport phenomenon and the mean life of the tracer. 

Nozaki Y, Yamada M, Nikaido H (1990) The marine geochemistry of actinium-227 evidence for its migration through sediment pore water. Geophys Res Lett 17 1933-1936 Nozaki Y (1993) Actinium-227 a steady state tracer for the deep-se basin wide circulation and mixing studes. In Deep Ocean Circulation, Physical and Chemical Aspects. Teramoto T (ed) Elsevier p 139-155... 

Solids Circulation Rate. The solids circulation rate was obtained from the particle velocity measurements at the downcomer side by following visually the tracer particles at the wall with a stop watch. The data reported here by Yang and Keaims (1983) are for polyethylene beads (907 kg/m in density and 2800 pm in average particle size) and hollow epoxy spheres (210 kg/cm3 in density and 2800 pm in average particle size). The experiments were carried out in a semicircular transparent Plexiglas apparatus, 28.6 cm in diameter and 610 cm in height. 

The same kind of phenomenon was not observed when distributor plate was located closer to the draft tube inlet atL = 14.1 cm and when only No. 7 and No. 8 or No. 7 and No. 3 flows were used. When all three flow injection locations were used, substantial improvement in solids circulation rate is possible even at L = 14.1 cm as shown in Fig. 9. The critical downcomer aeration velocities (superficial velocities based on downcomer area) for the data shown in Fig. 9 were determined through tracer gas injection experiments to be 0.29 m/s at L = 21.7 cm and 0.22 m/s at L = 14.1 cm. 

In correlating the data, the solid exchange rate between the two regions, Wzl was assumed to be constant. The tracer concentration data were analyzed statistically and the solids circulation rates are reported in Table 2. The positive fluxes indicate that the net solids flow is from bubble... 

---