Production of Large Marine Aerosols from Wind Forced Mechanical Breaking Waves

Due to a lack of observations associated with sea spray generation (i.e. fluxes) at the air-sea interface, inertial droplets' role in the total spray-induced air-sea fluxes remains unclear. While these inertial droplets carry a significant amount of energy, they typically have short residence times, and remain within a significant wave height of the ocean's surface. As a result, these droplets may not reach equilibrium, further contributing to the uncertainty associated with total spray-induced air-sea fluxes. Experimental work conducted at the University of Delaware's Air Sea Interaction Laboratory studied inertial droplet size distributions and ejection velocities. Breaking waves were mechanically generated in the laboratory, in the presence of wind. Several wave age conditions were studied. Laser induced florescence techniques detected surface wave profiles, while a shadowgraph setup simultaneously tracked droplet sizes and velocities. This talk will present results from this study, with a focus on increasing wave age and wave slope's effect on average droplet production and initial dynamics.