Sea-Surface Chemistry and Its Impact on the Marine Boundary Layer

2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (19) ◽  
pp. 10385-10389 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Donaldson ◽  
Christian George
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Surface Chemistry ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Sea Surface

Can Marine Cloud Brightening Reduce Sea-Surface Temperatures to Moderate Extreme Hurricanes and Typhoons?

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Salter SH ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Cloud Condensation Nuclei ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Sea Surface Temperatures ◽  
Marine Stratocumulus ◽  
Surface Temperatures ◽  
Stratocumulus Clouds ◽  
Cloud Tops

Elevated sea-surface temperatures are a necessary but not sufficient requirement for the formation of hurricanes and typhoons. This paper suggests a way to exploit this. Twomey [1] showed that cloud reflectivity depends on the size-distribution of cloud drops, with a large number of small drops reflecting more than a smaller number of larger ones. Mid-ocean air is cleaner than over land. Latham [2-4] suggested that reflectivity of marine stratocumulus clouds could be increased by releasing a submicron spray of filtered sea water into the bottom of the marine boundary layer. The salt residues left after evaporation would be mixed by turbulence through the full depth of the marine boundary layer and would be ideal cloud condensation nuclei. Those that reached a height where the air had a super-saturation above 100% by enough to get over the peak of the Köhler curve would produce an increased number of cloud drops and so trigger the Twomey effect. The increase in reflection from cloud tops back out to space would cool sea-surface water. We are not trying to increase cloud cover; we just want to make existing cloud tops whiter. The spray could be produced by wind-driven vessels cruising chosen ocean regions. The engineering design of sea-going hardware is well advanced. This paper suggests a way to calculate spray quantities and the number and cost of spray vessels to achieve a hurricane reduction to a more acceptable intensity. It is intended to show the shape of a possible calculation with credible if not exact assumptions. Anyone with better assumptions should be able to follow the process.

scholarly journals Effects of Large Eddies on the Structure of the Marine Boundary Layer under Strong Wind Conditions

2004 ◽  
Vol 61 (24) ◽  
pp. 3049-3064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isaac Ginis ◽  
Alexander P. Khain ◽  
Elena Morozovsky
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Wind Speed ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Cloud Formation ◽  
Strong Wind ◽  
Latent Heat Release ◽  
Air Humidity ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Large Eddies

Abstract A model of the atmospheric boundary layer (BL) is presented that explicitly calculates a two-way interaction of the background flow and convective motions. The model is utilized for investigation of the formation of large eddies (roll vortices) and their effects on the structure of the marine boundary layer under conditions resembling those of tropical cyclones. It is shown that two main factors controlling the formation of large eddies are the magnitude of the background wind speed and air humidity, determining the cloud formation and latent heat release. When the wind speed is high enough, a strong vertical wind shear develops in the lower part of the BL, which triggers turbulent mixing and the formation of a mixed layer. As a result, the vertical profiles of velocity, potential temperature, and mixing ratio in the background flow are modified to allow for the development of large eddies via dynamic instability. Latent heat release in clouds was found to be the major energy source of large eddies. The cloud formation depends on the magnitude of air humidity. The most important manifestation of the effects of large eddies is a significant increase of the near-surface wind speed and evaporation from the sea surface. For strong wind conditions, the increase of the near-surface speed can exceed 10 m s−1 and evaporation from the sea surface can double. These results demonstrate an important role large eddies play in the formation of BL structure in high wind speeds. Inclusion of these effects in the BL parameterizations of tropical cyclone models may potentially lead to substantial improvements in the prediction of storm intensity.

scholarly journals A laboratory characterisation of inorganic iodine emissions from the sea surface: dependence on oceanic variables and parameterisation for global modelling

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 31445-31477 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. M. MacDonald ◽  
J. C. Gómez Martín ◽  
R. Chance ◽  
S. Warriner ◽  
A. Saiz-Lopez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Atmospheric Chemistry ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Environmental Parameters ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Total Iodine ◽  
Iodide Ions ◽  
Iodine Compounds ◽  
Halogen Chemistry ◽  
Inorganic Iodine

Abstract. Reactive iodine compounds play a~significant role in the atmospheric chemistry of the oceanic boundary layer by influencing the oxidising capacity through catalytically removing O3 and altering the HOx and NOx balance. The sea-to-air flux of iodine over the open ocean is therefore an important quantity in assessing these impacts on a global scale. This paper examines the effect of a number of relevant environmental parameters, including water temperature, salinity and organic compounds, on the magnitude of the HOI and I2 fluxes produced from the uptake of O3 and its reaction with iodide ions in aqueous solution. The results of these laboratory experiments and those reported previously (Carpenter et al., 2013), along with sea surface iodide concentrations measured or inferred from measurements of dissolved total iodine and iodate reported in the literature, were then used to produce parameterised expressions for the HOI and I2 fluxes as a function of wind speed, sea-surface temperature and O3. These expressions were used in the Tropospheric HAlogen chemistry MOdel (THAMO) to compare with MAX-DOAS measurements of iodine monoxide (IO) performed during the HaloCAST-P cruise in the Eastern Pacific ocean (Mahajan et al., 2012). The modelled IO agrees reasonably with the field observations, although significant discrepancies are found during a period of low wind speeds (<3 m s−1), when the model overpredicts IO by up to a factor of three. The inorganic iodine flux contributions to IO are found to be comparable to, or even greater than, the contribution of organo-iodine compounds and therefore its inclusion in atmospheric models is important to improve predictions of the influence of halogen chemistry in the marine boundary layer.

scholarly journals Twenty-Four-Hour Observations of the Marine Boundary Layer Using Shipborne NOAA High-Resolution Doppler Lidar

2005 ◽  
Vol 44 (11) ◽  
pp. 1723-1744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volker Wulfmeyer ◽  
Tijana Janjić
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Sea Surface Temperature ◽  
Wind Shear ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Doppler Lidar ◽  
Sensible Heat ◽  
Wind Profiles

Abstract Shipborne observations obtained with the NOAA high-resolution Doppler lidar (HRDL) during the 1999 Nauru (Nauru99) campaign were used to study the structure of the marine boundary layer (MBL) in the tropical Pacific Ocean. During a day with weak mesoscale activity, diurnal variability of the height of the convective MBL was observed using HRDL backscatter data. The observed diurnal variation in the MBL height had an amplitude of about 250 m. Relations between the MBL height and in situ measurements of sea surface temperature as well as latent and sensible heat fluxes were examined. Good correlation was found with the sea surface temperature. The correlation with the latent heat flux was lower, and practically no correlation between the MBL height and the sensible heat and buoyancy fluxes could be detected. Horizontal wind profiles were measured using a velocity–azimuth display scan of HRDL velocity data. Strong wind shear at the top of the MBL was observed in most cases. Comparison of these results with GPS radiosonde data shows discrepancies in the wind intensity and direction, which may be due to different observation times and locations as well as due to multipath effects at the ship’s platform. Vertical wind profiles corrected for ship’s motion were used to derive vertical velocity variance and skewness profiles. Motion compensation had a significant effect on their shape. Normalized by the convective velocity scale and by the top of the mixed layer zi, the variance varied between 0.45 and 0.65 at 0.4z/zi and decreased to 0.2 at 1.0z/zi. The skewness ranged between 0.3 and 0.8 in the MBL and showed in almost all cases a maximum between 1.0z/zi and 1.1z/zi. These profiles revealed the existence of another turbulent layer above the MBL, which was probably driven by wind shear and cloud condensation processes.

Iodine chemistry in the tropical and remote open ocean marine boundary layer

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swaleha Inamdar ◽  
Liselotte Tinel ◽  
Rosie Chance ◽  
Lucy Jane Carpenter ◽  
Sabu Prabhakaran ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Wind Speed ◽  
Kinetic Model ◽  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Tropospheric Ozone ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Iodine Species ◽  
Ocean Region ◽  
Inorganic Iodine

&lt;p&gt;Iodine chemistry plays an essential role in controlling the radiation budget by changing various atmospheric parameters. Iodine in the atmosphere is known to cause depletion of ozone via catalytic reaction cycles. It alters the atmospheric oxidation capacity, and lead to ultrafine particle formation that acts as potential cloud condensation nuclei. The ocean is the primary source of iodine; it enters the atmosphere through fluxes of gaseous reactive iodine species. At the ocean surface, seawater iodide reacts with tropospheric ozone (gas) to form inorganic iodine species in gaseous form. These species namely, hypoiodous acid (HOI) and molecular iodine (I&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;) quickly photolyse to release reactive iodine (I) in the atmosphere. This process acts as a significant sink for tropospheric ozone contributing to ~16% ozone loss throughout the troposphere. Reactive iodine released in the atmosphere undergoes the formation of iodine monoxide (IO) or higher oxides of iodine (I&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt;) via self-recombination reactions. It is known that inorganic iodine fluxes (HOI and I&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;) contribute to 75% of the detected IO over the Atlantic Ocean. However, we did not observe this from ship-based MAX-DOAS studies between 2014-2017. At present, there are no direct observations of inorganic iodine (HOI; few for I&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;) and are estimated via empirical methods derived from the interfacial kinetic model by Carpenter et al. in 2013. Based on the kinetic model, estimation of HOI and I&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; fluxes depends on three parameters, namely, ozone concentration, surface iodide concentration, and the wind speed. This parameterisation for inorganic fluxes assumes a sea surface temperature (SST) of 293 K and has limiting wind speed conditions. Since the parameterisation conditions assumed SST of 293 K higher uncertainties due to errors in activation energy creeps in the estimation of HOI flux compared to I&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; as the flux of HOI is ~20 times greater than that of I&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;. For three consecutive expeditions in the Indian and Southern Ocean, we detected ~1 pptv of IO in the marine boundary layer. These levels are not explained by the calculated inorganic fluxes by using observed and predicted sea surface iodide concentrations. This method of iodine flux estimation is currently used in all global models, along with the MacDonald et al. 2014 iodide estimation method. Model output using these parameterisations have not been able to match the observed IO levels in the Indian and Southern Ocean region. This discrepancy suggests that the process of efflux of iodine to the atmosphere may not be fully understood, and the current parametrisation does not do justice to the observations. It also highlights that the flux of organic iodine may also play a role in observed IO levels, especially in the Indian Ocean region. A correlation of 0.7 was achieved above the 99% confidence limit for chlorophyll-a with observed IO concentration in this region. There is a need to carry more observations to improve the estimation technique of iodine sea-air flux thus improving model predictions of IO in the atmosphere.&lt;/p&gt;

Aircraft measurements of sea surface conditions and their relationship to marine boundary-layer dynamics

1990 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 397-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aim� Druilhet ◽  
Pierre Durand ◽  
Alberte Fischer ◽  
Fr�d�rique Said
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Aircraft Measurements ◽  
Surface Conditions ◽  
Boundary Layer Dynamics

scholarly journals A case study of sea breeze blocking regulated by sea surface temperature along the English south coast

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 4409-4418 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. K. Sweeney ◽  
J. M. Chagnon ◽  
S. L. Gray
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Sea Surface Temperature ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Weather Prediction ◽  
Sea Breeze ◽  
Static Stability ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
South Coast

Abstract. The sensitivity of sea breeze structure to sea surface temperature (SST) and coastal orography is investigated in convection-permitting Met Office Unified Model simulations of a case study along the south coast of England. Changes in SST of 1 K are shown to significantly modify the structure of the sea breeze immediately offshore. On the day of the case study, the sea breeze was partially blocked by coastal orography, particularly within Lyme Bay. The extent to which the flow is blocked depends strongly on the static stability of the marine boundary layer. In experiments with colder SST, the marine boundary layer is more stable, and the degree of blocking is more pronounced. Although a colder SST would also imply a larger land–sea temperature contrast and hence a stronger onshore wind – an effect which alone would discourage blocking – the increased static stability exerts a dominant control over whether blocking takes place. The implications of prescribing fixed SST from climatology in numerical weather prediction model forecasts of the sea breeze are discussed.

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