Abstract
A new set of empirical formulas for the production rate and the number concentration of sea-water droplets on the sea surface are proposed, synthesizing past observation data of sea-salt particles in the sea and water droplets in wind-wave tanks. A new levelz c is introduced as the effective wind-sea surface where seawater droplets are produced. The new formulas are expressed in linear functions in logarithmic scales ofu*2/vσ p , a parameter to describe overall conditions of airsea boundary processes, whereu * is the friction velocity of air,v the kinematic viscosity of air and σ p the peak angular frequency of wind-wave part of wave spectra. A model of coexistence of spray droplets and suspended particles near the sea surface is proposed. As for the independent parameter, a comparison between the uses ofu*2/vσ p and ofu * 3 which was the traditional way of parameterization excluding wave measure, shows that the advantage of usingu*2/vσ p is statistically significant with a confidence limit 89% in F-test.
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Iida, N., Toba, Y. & Chaen, M. A new expression for the production rate of sea water droplets on the sea surface. J Oceanogr 48, 439–460 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02234020
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02234020