Aeration of upper ocean by breaking waves

先进的实验技术将用于在实验室中产生破碎波，并研究单个破碎事件产生的气泡的浓度和大小。该项目的目的是建立破碎波的全球参数-如频谱和全球陡度-与溢出破碎机和由此产生的气泡羽流的局部参数之间的关系。对最近航行的详细海浪数据的分析将用于评估哪种波谱最适合于真实的条件，并考虑这将对溢出破碎机夹带的气泡造成的差异。在伦敦大学学院进行的初步研究表明，波谱影响气泡羽流的大小分布，特别是在盐水。目前，参数化破碎机产生气泡的方法假设一个溢出破碎机与任何其他相同，初步工作表明，这一假设是有缺陷的。由于这些气泡正是二氧化碳传输中最重要的气泡，这可能对预测海洋上层与大气相互作用的准确性产生重大影响。

Advanced experimental techniques will be used to generate breaking waves in the lab, and to study the concentration and size of air bubbles produced by a single breaking event. The project aims to establish relationship between global parameters of a breaking wave-- such as spectrum and global steepness-- with local parameters of a spilling breaker and of a resulting bubble plume. Analysis of detailed ocean wave data from recent cruises will be used to assess which wave spectra are most appropriate for real conditions, and to consider the difference that this would make to the bubbles entrained by spilling breakers. Preliminary studies conducted at UCL show that the wave spectra affects bubble plume size distribution, especially in salt water. At present, the way of parametrising bubble generation by breakers assumes that one spilling breaker is the same as any other, and the preliminary work shows that this assumption is flawed. Sincethese bubbles are precisely the ones that are most important for carbon dioxide transfer, this could have a major effect on accuracy of prediction of upper ocean interaction with the atmosphere.