Breaking waves and near-surface sea spray aerosol dependence on changing winds: Wave breaking efficiency and bubble-related air-sea interaction processes

Simultaneous measurements of sea spray aerosol (SSA), wind, wave, and microwave brightness temperature are obtained in the open ocean on-board Floating Instrument Platform (FLIP). These data are analysed to clarify the ocean surface processes important to SSA production. Parameters are formulated to represent surface processes with characteristic length scales spanning a broad range. The investigation reveals distinct differences of the SSA properties in rising winds and falling winds, with higher SSA volume in falling winds. Also, in closely related measurements of whitecap coverage, higher whitecap fraction as a function of wind speed is found in falling winds than in rising winds or in older seas than in younger seas. Similar trend is found in the short scale roughness reflected in the microwave brightness temperature data. In the research of length and velocity scales of breaking waves, it has been observed that the length scale of wave breaking is shorter in mixed seas than in wind seas. For example, source function analysis of short surface waves shows that the characteristic length scale of the dissipation function shifts toward higher wavenumber (shorter wavelength) in mixed seas than in wind seas. Similarly, results from feature tracking or Doppler analysis of microwave radar sea spikes, which are closely associated with breaking waves, show that the magnitude of the average breaking wave velocity is smaller in mixed seas than in wind seas. Furthermore, breaking waves are observed to possess geometric similarity. Applying the results of breaking wave analyses to the SSA and whitecap observations described above, it is suggestive that larger air cavities resulting from the longer breakers are entrained in rising high winds. The larger air cavities escape rapidly due to buoyancy before they can be fully broken down into small bubbles for the subsequent SSA production or whitecap manifestation. In contrast, in falling winds (with mixed seas more likely), the shorter breaker entrains smaller and more numerous air cavities that stay underwater longer for more efficient bubble breakup by turbulence and prolonging the surface disturbances attributable to wave breaking. For low winds, the breaking scale is small and with high efficiency for SSA or whitecap generation; the trend of rising or falling wind is less important.