A wind–wave-dependent sea spray volume flux model based on field experiments

Abstract

Sea spray can contribute significantly to the exchanges of heat and momentum across the air–sea interface. However, while critical, sea spray physics are typically not included in operational atmospheric and oceanic models due to large uncertainties in their parameterizations. In large part, this is because of the scarcity of in-situ sea spray observations which prevent rigorous validation of existing sea spray models. Moreover, while sea spray is critically produced through the fundamental interactions between wind and waves, traditionally, sea spray models are parameterized in terms of wind properties only. In this study, we present novel in-situ observations of sea spray derived from a la..