Parameterization of the sea spray generation function with whitecap coverage

Abstract

Sea spray droplets are produced by waves breaking on the sea surface, and they vary the transfer of energy between the atmosphere and ocean. The sea spray generation function (SSGF) is generally considered as a function of the initial radius of the spray droplets and the wind speed. However, ocean waves always exist at the air-sea interface, so it is not reasonable to consider only the effect of sea surface winds while ignoring the effects of ocean waves. Whitecap coverage is an important characteristic parameter of breaking waves, and researchers believe that this parameter is related to both wave state and wind speed. In this paper, the SSGF is parameterized by the whitecap coverage, and a new SSGF describing different droplet radii is organically integrated based on the whitecap coverage parameter. Then, with the relationship between the whitecap coverage and wave state, the influence of ocean waves on the SSGF for different wave states was analyzed by using observational data in the laboratory. The results show that the new SSGF that considers wave effects can reasonably describe the droplet generation process under different wave state conditions.