The specific ozone destruction rate of the ocean surface and its dependence on horizontal wind velocity

Abstract

Vertical profiles of ozone concentration and temperature for various wind velocities were determined at a lighthouse in the North Sea. Determination of the ozone flux into the ocean surface resulting from the ozone concentration gradient, taking the layer dependence of the transfer coefficients into account, yielded the following results:

In the range from 1 m/sec to 10 m/sec the vertical ozone gradient is independent of wind velocity. A slight decrease of the gradient for increasing wind velocity turned out to be significant. Thus the vertical ozone flux increases linearly with the wind velocity. An increase of the gradient with increased stability is compensated by the layer dependence of the transfer coefficients, within the experimental errors.

We obtained the following relation between the sea surface destruction rateq and the wind velocityu ₁₀ at a height of 10 m:

$$q = (1.7 \pm 0.6) \cdot 10^{ - 5} \cdot u_{10} [cm/sec].$$

To a first approximation it is independent of the layer structure. Since these values ofq resulting from this relation are smaller than those determined in the laboratory a new, more accurate estimate of the global ozone destruction rate has become possible.