Abstract
Accurate measurements of the oceanic whitecap coverage from whitecap images are required for better understanding the air-gas transfer and aerosol production processes. However, this is a challenging task because the whitecap patches are formed immediately after the wave breaks and are spread over a wide area. The main challenges in designing a whitecap-imaging instrument are the small field of view of the camera lens, processing large numbers of images, recording data over long time periods, and deployment difficulties in stormy conditions. This paper describes the design of a novel high-resolution optical instrument for imaging oceanic whitecaps and the automated algorithm processing the collected images. The instrument was successfully deployed in 2013 as part of the HiWINGS campaign in the North Atlantic Ocean. The instrument uses a fish-eye camera lens to image the whitecaps in wide angle of view (180°).
Highlights
Whitecaps formed on the ocean surface after the passage of breaking waves play a significant role in many marine and atmospheric processes, such as air-sea gas exchange [1,2,3], marine aerosol production [4,5,6], and global radiation balance [7]
He found that the microwave emissivity of the ocean surface is proportional to the whitecaps and the retrieving of both wind speed and direction depends on this emissivity
Microwave radiometry provides all-weather day-and-night observations of sea state and whitecaps; only extreme meteorological conditions limit the performance of microwave radiometry at some frequencies
Summary
Whitecaps formed on the ocean surface after the passage of breaking waves play a significant role in many marine and atmospheric processes, such as air-sea gas exchange [1,2,3], marine aerosol production [4,5,6], and global radiation balance [7]. Many cameras with standard view angles are required to image whitecap coverage on the wide range. The instrument is based on using a fish-eye lens camera that has a large view angle (180o) This instrument could be further developed in the future to measure the whitecap coverage from all directions
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