Effect on atmospheric CO₂ from seasonal variations in the high latitude ocean

Data from the North Pacific gyre, Bering Sea, and North Atlantic show large seasonal fluctuations in the pCO₂ of surface waters. The seasonal variation in these high latitudes apparently has a generic pattern: higher surface water pCO₂ in winter and lower in summer. Satellite data will eventually help decipher the relative effects of temperature and biological production in the seasonal carbon cycle, but as yet little work has been done on what possible role the seasonality of pCO₂ in the high latitudes might have on the average value of atmospheric pCO₂. Here I develop a model that shows the average value for atmospheric pCO₂ depends upon the ratio of the rates at which the ocean/atmosphere system moves toward equilibrium values during the summer and winter conditions of the high latitude ocean.