Spume Droplet Source Function:Measurements and Theory

海气耦合边界层在海洋与大气之间的动量、质量、热量和水汽通量中起着重要的作用，而海雾参与了所有这些海气输送。事实上，当水滴悬浮在空气中时，即使是很短的时间，也有时间与大气交换大量的热量、水分和动量。事实上，有证据表明，有相当大一部分海气热流是由海雾携带的。然而，对于海雾效应不能忽略的风速范围，仍然没有达成共识。此外，由于它们的质量和表面积，较大的所谓海绵液滴与空气交换动量和热量的潜力最大。然而，这些大液滴通常在产生后不久就会回落，并保持在表面的波高内，从而避开了传统的“固定”测量技术。此外，它们产生机制的详细物理机制尚不清楚，从而阻碍了适当的建模。该项目涉及这些大液滴的来源、功能和生成机制。需要更好地了解在海洋表面产生大水滴的情况，这可能会对大气和海洋之间的多重传输的总体平衡产生潜在影响。这可能在飓风等高风速情况下尤其显著。虽然这项工作涉及小规模海-气相互作用的具体方面，但它的影响和社会效益远远超出了科学界。这项研究的更广泛影响将包括更好地理解海洋和大气的耦合，这将导致天气和气候的更好耦合模型。我们预测季节波动和长期气候变化的能力对多个行业和市场以及国家灾害和威胁防备具有重要影响。归根结底，良好的国家和国际环境政策依赖于决策的坚实科学基础，而这项工作将有助于这一努力。这项研究的结果将在专业期刊出版物和会议上传播，并酌情在更受欢迎的出版途径上传播。例如，PI参与了多个外联计划，包括参观特拉华大学独特的海空互动设施、实验室演示，以及在旨在为高三和高年级学生提供大学式体验的住宿夏令营期间授课。

The coupled air-sea boundary layers play an important role in the fluxes of momentum, mass, heat, and moisture between the ocean and the atmosphere and sea-spray is involved all these air-sea transfers. Indeed, while suspended in the air, even for a short time, water droplets have time to exchange significant amounts of heat, moisture, and momentum with the atmosphere. In fact, evidence suggests that a significant amount of the air-sea heat flux is carried by the sea-spray. However, there is still no consensus as to the range of wind speeds over which sea-spray effects cannot be neglected. Furthermore, because of their mass and surface area, the larger so-called spume droplets have the largest potential for exchanging momentum and heat with the air. Yet, these large droplets generally fall back shortly after being generated and remain within a wave height of the surface thereby evading traditional "fixed" measurement techniques. In addition, the detailed physics of their generation mechanism is not yet know, thereby preventing adequate modeling. The project is concerned with the source function and generation mechanism for these large droplets. Better knowledge about the generation of large water droplets at the surface of the ocean, which may have the potential impact on the overall balance of the multiple transfers between the atmosphere and the ocean is needed. This might be especially significant in high wind speed regimes such as hurricanes. While this work deals with specific aspects of small-scale air-sea interaction, it has much broader impacts and societal benefit beyond the scientific community. The broader impact of this research will include an improved understanding of the coupling of the oceans and the atmosphere, which will lead to better coupled models of weather and climate. Our ability to predict seasonal fluctuations and secular climate change has an important impact multiple industries and markets, as well as national disaster and threat preparedness. Ultimately, good national and international environmental policy relies on a solid scientific basis for decision making, and the work will contribute to that effort. Results from this research will be disseminated in professional journal publications and conferences, and, where appropriate, more popular avenues of publication. For example, the PI participates in multiple outreach programs involving visits of the unique Air-Sea Interaction facility at the University of Delaware, Lab demonstrations, and teaching during a residential summer camp designed to provide a college-like experience to high school juniors and seniors.