Ocean Waves Breaking and Marine Aerosol Fluxes

The atmosphere and the ocean form a coupled system which exchanges heat, momentum and water at the airsea interface. The interface is dynamic and masses and energy are continually transferred across the airsea interface. The energy ?ow from the atmosphere to the ocean generates an aerodynamically rough sea surface. If the energy ?ow is su?ciently intense, at some points the surface waves will lose their stability and eventually break. Breaking is a very localized and non-stationary phenomenon that is a source of vorticity and turbulence. Dissipated energy becomes available for mixing the water layers and for whitecapping of various scales. Whitecapping is a strongly nonlinear process, which involves instability of the surface waves with space and time scales several orders of magnitude smaller than those associated with gravity wave motion. Whitecaps are usually formed at or near the crests of the larger waves and occur in groups with successive crests breaking downwind of one another. Wave breaking is the dominant generator of the 'primary' marine aerosol (sea salt) and it is a major factor in the airsea exchange of gases (including carbon dioxide). Most of the aerosol generated from natural waters is in the form of jet and ?lm drops from the bursting of air bubbles (Monahan and Van Patten, 1989). The enriched aerosols associated with the ejected droplets are very - portant in maintaining a source of salt-laden cloud condensation nuclei as well asinterfacial?uxesoftraceconstituents,includingbacteria,viruses,heavym- als, radioactivity and organic material (Kerman, 1986).

Bridges the gap between generalized texts and specialized texts on oceanography First ocean wave title to specifically focus on wave breaking phenomenon Can be used as a textbook for graduate students, Ph.D students and postdoctoral students due to its basic and educational character

Auteur
Stanislaw Massel is currently a professor and the Director of the Institute of Oceanology in Sopot Poland.

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Ocean Waves Breaking and Marine Aerosol Fluxes

Stanislaw R. Massel

Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Sopot, Poland

This book presents a comprehensive study on the breaking of surface waves induced by wind and the relationship of breaking rate with marine aerosol fluxes. The book draws attention to the theoretical and experimental achievements in the study of wave breaking phenomena in deep water seas. In particular, it deals with the important problems of energy dissipation and the estimation of energy loss due to wave breaking in deep waters. The rationale behind existing methods and practical outcomes for the estimation of whitecap coverage of the sea surface and energy dissipation rate are given in detail.

The book also focuses on the fundamentals of marine aerosols and their generation. The text provides a comprehensive overview of the currently available experimental data on marine aerosol fluxes and presents theoretical methodology of the estimation of the intensity of sea aerosol production. The systematic analysis leads to a novel approach in the development of links between aerosol production with sea state parameters and its seasonal variation in deep water seas.

The book is intended for professionals and researchers in the areas of ocean physics and meteorology and also as a useful book for graduate students, PhD students, postdoctoral students, and engineers working on ocean environmental problems.

Contenu
Basic processes near the airsea interface.- Mechanics of steep and breaking waves.- Spectral and statistical properties of ocean waves.- Experimental insights into mechanisms of wave breaking.- Wave breaking criteria and probability of breaking.- Energy dissipation due to wave breaking.- Whitecap coverage of the sea surface.- Fundamentals of marine aerosols.- Marine aerosol fluxes.- Aerosol flux as a function of sea state parameters.- Seasonal dependence of aerosol fluxes in the Baltic Sea.