This award provides funding for continued operation and maintenance of the National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (NOSAMS). NOSAMS carries out analysis of carbon isotopes (primarily radiocarbon, 14C) via accelerator mass spectrometry. It also carries out research and development in new AMS radiocarbon sample preparation techniques and accelerator operations. It has operated since 1993 under cooperative agreements (0228996, 9807266, 9301015) between WHOI and NSF, and was acquired, tested and put into operation with NSF support (8802509) beginning in 1989. The present cooperative agreement was implemented in 2003, and has an anniversary date of 4/1 annually.
When it began operations, water samples collected for the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE), a major international field program involving very substantial NSF support, comprised the majority of samples analyzed by NOSAMS. Most of the original WOCE radiocarbon analyses were completed within the operations of the 1998-2003 cooperative agreement. Beginning in about 2003, samples collected as part of Climate Variability (CLIVAR) and Carbon Cycle programs supported by programs in the Division of Ocean Sciences have made up a significant portion of the sample submissions to NOSAMS. For the current award, approximately 1,000 CLIVAR-related analyses are planned for Year 1, and it is anticipated that NOSAMS will carry out approximately 1,000 such analyses annually for the next five years, subject to continued review and approval by NSF.
This award provides funding for five years of operation and maintenance the NOSAMS and for a variety of instrumentation upgrades necessary for continued improvement of the measurements and sample preparation systems.
The National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility measures environmental levels of radiocarbon (C-14, the heavy, radioactive isotope of carbon) for the ocean science community. The facility is part-funded (~40%) directly by the National Science Foundation while the remainder of our support is recouped from fees charged for the analyses. The facility generally does all the sample processing (chemical purification and conversion ultimately to filamentous graphite) and analyzes the abundance of radiocarbon in the resultant samples using one of two accelerator mass spectrometers. Details are provided on our web site (www.whoi.edu/nosams) on the logistics of sample submission, processing, analysis, and reporting of data. In a typical year, we make in excess of 6,000 sample measurements total for several hundred clients. Sample sizes typical range from a few milligrams of material down to a small fraction of a milligram. Radiocarbon is widely used in scientific projects ranging from "dating" (using the ~5700 year half-life of radiocarbon) to determine how long a sample has been isolated from the modern carbon reservoir (usually the atmosphere or the surface ocean), through diagnosing the transport and transformation of organic and inorganic compounds in the carbon cycle, to even "environmental forensics" where one can assess the relative contributions of radiocarbon-free petrochemicals to observed environmental compounds. In addition to providing the highest quality analyses in the most cost effective and timely manner possible, we continue to improve existing methods and develop new services for our clients.
