Interact: Interesting Assorted Problems Involving Geophysical Flows

The generation of sea spray aerosols at the ocean surface is dominated by the production of droplets from bursting bubbles in whitecaps. These aerosols are transported through the atmosphere and influence weather patterns, climate, and spread of pollutants; the number, size, and composition of these aerosols are critical in modeling these effects. We study sea spray generation in a small-scale, controlled experimental setup. We generate rafts of bubbles using impinging jets in solutions of varying concentrations of salt (artificial sea salt and NaCl) and surfactants (ionic SDS and non-ionic Triton X-100). The decay of the rafts is observed synchronously with wet drop measurements using a custom holographic imaging setup and dry aerosol measurements from optical and scanning mobility particle sizers. We study the relationship between the size-dependent bursting of the bubble rafts and the distribution of ejected aerosols, and we discuss how these are affected by the solution's salinity and surfactant concentrations.

Funding acknowledgement

This work is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant 2318816 to LD (Physical Oceanography program)