Aeration of upper ocean by breaking waves

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

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.