A new sea spray generation function with wind-wave (mis)alignment
摘要
Sea spray induced by surface wave breaking plays an important role in air-sea flux. However, large differences in sea spray generation at the same wind speed were presented in previous studies. As a result, the parameterizations of sea spray generation functions can reach 4 orders difference. Wind speed may not be enough to explain this difference, and the surface wave state is a significant factor that causes this large difference, which then affects the estimation of the air-sea heat fluxes. In this study, synchronous observations of air-sea heat fluxes, surface waves and sea spray were conducted at a tower-based platform in a coastal region. Results showed that the sea spray generation is strongly correlated with both wind speed, and wave age as previously; more importantly, wind-wave alignment angle can cause approximately 1.3 orders (or 20 times) of sea spray generation function (SSGF) difference. A new SSGF with a dimensionless parameter R