The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will establish a service-oriented facility to analyze radiocarbon samples on behalf of the ocean sciences community. The Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) Facility will use newly developed techno- logy, modern instrumentation and automated sample preparation procedures. The Facility is required to analyze radiocarbon and other tracer samples collected during upcoming field programs of major Global Geosciences projects and individual research grants. Chemical tracers are powerful tools for describing oceano- graphic processes. The analysis of several natural and anthropogenic chemical constituents of seawater, such as Carbon-14, provides information on long-term mixing and circulation in the deep ocean, on upwelling, and on air-sea carbon dioxide exchange processes. These processes have major implications for understanding the forces that affect climate variability and the chemical interaction of the carbon cycle and biological productivity. The description of processes such as these is central to major oceanographic investigations planned for the next decade. AMS technology reduces required sample size by a factor of 1,000, to 250 milliliters of seawater, for achieving the requisite level of precision to define the geophysical processes under investigation. Given the large number of samples needed for the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE), the Global Ocean Flux Study (GOFS), and other geo- sciences programs, the AMS Facility will be operated on a 24- hour a day basis to meet scientific requirements. Present plans call for the analysis of up to 4,000 C-14 samples annually with precision of +/- 0.3 percent to 0.4 percent. The Institution will provide cost-sharing in terms of engineering and architectural drawings and will construct the required laboratory addition to house the AMS Facility.
