TY - JOUR
T1 - Mass Transfer at the Ocean-Atmosphere Interface
T2 - The Role of Wave Breaking, Droplets, and Bubbles
AU - Deike, Luc
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Annual Reviews Inc.. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Breaking waves modulate the transfer of energy, momentum, and mass between the ocean and atmosphere, controlling processes critical to the climate system, from gas exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen to the generation of sea spray aerosols that can be transported in the atmosphere and serve as cloud condensation nuclei. The smallest components, i.e., drops and bubbles generated by breaking waves, play an outsize role. This fascinating problem is characterized by a wide range of length scales, from wind forcing the wave field at scales of (1 km-0.1 m) to the dynamics of wave breaking at (10-0.1 m); air bubble entrainment, dynamics, and dissolution in the water column at (1 m-10 μm); and bubbles bursting at (10 mm-1 μm), generating sea spray droplets at (0.5 mm-0.5 μm) that are ejected into atmospheric turbulent boundary layers. I discuss recent progress to bridge these length scales, identifying the controlling processes and proposing a path toward mechanistic parameterizations of air-sea mass exchange that naturally accounts for sea state effects.
AB - Breaking waves modulate the transfer of energy, momentum, and mass between the ocean and atmosphere, controlling processes critical to the climate system, from gas exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen to the generation of sea spray aerosols that can be transported in the atmosphere and serve as cloud condensation nuclei. The smallest components, i.e., drops and bubbles generated by breaking waves, play an outsize role. This fascinating problem is characterized by a wide range of length scales, from wind forcing the wave field at scales of (1 km-0.1 m) to the dynamics of wave breaking at (10-0.1 m); air bubble entrainment, dynamics, and dissolution in the water column at (1 m-10 μm); and bubbles bursting at (10 mm-1 μm), generating sea spray droplets at (0.5 mm-0.5 μm) that are ejected into atmospheric turbulent boundary layers. I discuss recent progress to bridge these length scales, identifying the controlling processes and proposing a path toward mechanistic parameterizations of air-sea mass exchange that naturally accounts for sea state effects.
KW - air sea interaction
KW - bubbles
KW - gas transfer
KW - sea spray
KW - turbulence
KW - wave breaking
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U2 - 10.1146/annurev-fluid-030121-014132
DO - 10.1146/annurev-fluid-030121-014132
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85122750004
SN - 0066-4189
VL - 54
SP - 191
EP - 224
JO - Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics
JF - Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics
ER -