Residence time of droplets generated by breaking waves

The residence time of droplets generated by breaking waves plays an important role in determining air-sea mass, momentum, and energy exchanges, aerosol production and transport, and also in climate and weather models, among other things. In this talk, the residence time of droplets generated by breaking waves based on the experimental data from Erinin et. al. (2023), is examined. In the experiments, mechanically generated plunging breakers were produced in a laboratory wave tank using a quasi-2D focusing wave packet technique with a central frequency, f₀=1.15 Hz, and corresponding wavelength, λ₀=1.18 m (by linear theory). Droplets (d≥100 μm) moving up and down through a measurement plane, which is positioned 1 cm above the maximum wave crest height, are measured using an inline holographic technique recording at 650 Hz. Droplet statistics such as the number of droplets, drop diameter, speed, ejection angle, and acceleration are reported for droplets moving up and down through the measurement plane. Using experimentally measured droplet properties, a simple model is presented to estimate their residence times. In the future, we hope to extend this framework for droplets generated by wind-forced breaking waves.