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A wave roughness Reynolds number parameterization of the sea spray source flux
Author(s) -
Norris Sarah J.,
Brooks Ian M.,
Salisbury Dominic J.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/grl.50795
Subject(s) - sea spray , wind speed , flux (metallurgy) , sea state , aerosol , reynolds number , roughness length , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , environmental science , range (aeronautics) , wavenumber , physics , mechanics , wind profile power law , materials science , turbulence , optics , thermodynamics , metallurgy , composite material
Parameterizations of the sea spray aerosol source flux are derived as functions of wave roughness Reynolds numbers, R Ha and R Hw , for particles with radii between 0.176 and 6.61 µm at 80% relative humidity. These source functions account for up to twice the variance in the observations than does wind speed alone. This is the first such direct demonstration of the impact of wave state on the variability of sea spray aerosol production. Global European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts operational mode fields are used to drive the parameterizations. The source flux from the R H parameterizations varies from approximately 0.1 to 3 (R Ha ) and 5 ( R Hw ) times that from a wind speed parameterization, derived from the same measurements, where the wave state is substantially underdeveloped or overdeveloped, respectively, compared to the equilibrium wave state at the local wind speed.