AUTHOR=Wang Gang , Ma Hongyu , Babanin Alexander V. , Zhao Biao , Huang Chuanjiang , Dai Dejun , Qiao Fangli 

TITLE=Estimating sea spray volume flux with a laser gauge in a self-consistent system

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2022

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.1102631

DOI=10.3389/fmars.2022.1102631

ISSN=2296-7745

ABSTRACT=Sea spray is one of the drivers of heat, mass, and gas exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere. Traditional methods usually estimate the sea spray volume flux (SSVF) by establishing empirical spray generation functions using wind speed based on laboratory experiments. The spray volume flux could also be estimated by the record of the laser intensity. In the laboratory experiments, their relationship could be established since the returned laser intensity of the observing gauge and spray concentration can be observed instantaneously. However, the difficulty to generalize the laboratory result to field observations is that the measurement of sea spray is usually unavailable on the open seas. Recent studies introduced an environment variable (atmospheric extinction coefficient for instance) to relate the laser intensity to spray volume flux for both laboratory and field observations so that the relationship established in the laboratory experiments could be extended to open seas. These studies however gave SSVF estimations of great difference, since the relationships between each pair of the variables (spray volume flux, laser intensity, and the atmospheric extinction coefficient) are considered separately. This work established a self-consistent system composed of the three variables, in which the relationship between each pair of the variables in the system is consistent with that deduced from their respective relationships with the third variable. The consistency of the relationships ensures that the estimation of the sea spray volume flux from laser intensity is robust.