Spray-Mediated Enthalpy Flux to the Atmosphere and Salt Flux to the Ocean in High Winds

Abstract

Abstract Forecasts for the intensity and intensity changes of tropical cyclones have not improved as much as track forecasts. In high winds, two routes exist by which air and sea exchange heat and momentum: by spray-mediated processes and by interfacial transfer right at the air–sea interface, the only exchange route currently parameterized in most storm models. This manuscript quantifies two processes mediated by sea spray that could affect predictions of storm intensity when included in coupled ocean–atmosphere models. Because newly formed spray droplets cool rapidly to an equilibrium temperature that is lower than the air temperature, they cool the ocean when they reenter it, clearly transferring enthalpy from sea to air. These reentrant droplets proliferate in storm winds and are predicted to transfer enthalpy at a rate comparable to interfacial processes when the near-surface wind speed reaches 30 m s−1. Because reentrant spray droplets give up pure water to the atmosphere during their brief lifetime, they return to the sea saltier than the surface ocean water and thus also constitute an effective salt flux to the ocean (also related to a freshwater flux and a buoyancy flux). That is, reentrant spray droplets add enthalpy to the atmosphere to power storms and destabilize the ocean by increasing the salinity at the surface. Both processes can affect storm intensity. This manuscript demonstrates the magnitudes of the spray enthalpy and salt fluxes by combining a sophisticated microphysical model and data from the study of Humidity Exchange over the Sea (HEXOS) and the Fronts and Atlantic Storm-Tracks Experiment (FASTEX). It goes on to develop a fast algorithm for predicting these two fluxes in large-scale models.