Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

The role of sea spray in atmosphere–ocean gas exchange

Nature Geoscience volume 14, pages 593–598 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Sea spray facilitates the movement of matter and energy between the ocean and the atmosphere. While many of its contributions to heat and momentum transfer are relatively well understood, the contribution to chemical exchange, particularly gas exchange, remains less well known. This study provides an estimation of sea-spray gas-exchange potential for five gases (helium, neon, argon, oxygen and nitrogen) using a chemically modified microphysical model, the Andreas Gas Exchange Spray model. This model uses the physical evolution of the sea-spray droplet and gas-exchange equilibria to estimate the potential exchange of gases attributable to spray droplets. We find that sea spray does not contribute appreciably to gas exchange of helium and neon. However, for argon, oxygen and nitrogen, at high wind speeds (above 18 m s–1), sea-spray-droplet-facilitated exchange could contribute substantially to gas flux and is on the same order of magnitude as the empirically constrained direct exchange across the interface. Sea spray, as a potential pathway for atmosphere–ocean gas exchange, may improve gas-exchange predictions in the high-wind scenarios that are particularly important in the Southern Ocean polar region.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Sea-spray evolution.
Fig. 2: Air–sea temperature differentials.
Fig. 3: Global gas-exchange-potential map.
Fig. 4: Gas flux associated with evolution of a spray droplet as a function of wind speed.
Fig. 5: Monthly near-surface wind speeds from January and July 2009.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Data used in the analysis were obtained from publicly available sources as cited. Temperatures were obtained from the ICOADS dataset, which asks that we acknowledge by including the statement “ICOADS data provided by the NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSD, Boulder, Colorado, USA, from their Web site at http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/.” Air and sea temperatures were downloaded from the ICOADS long-term monthly mean products through https://icoads.noaa.gov/data.icoads.html and processed for the regions shown in the Methods. Salinity was averaged from the ranges presented by Emery and Meincke29. Seawinds QuikSCAT data were obtained from https://podaac-opendap.jpl.nasa.gov/opendap/allData/quikscat/L3/wind_1deg_1mo/ and filtered for January and July of all available years. Data generated using the AGES model are also available through OSF: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/6AUWS. Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

All code used in the AGES model has been deposited in the Open Science Framework: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/6AUWS.

References

  1. Woodcock, A. H., Kientzler, C. F., Arons, A. B. & Blanchard, D. C. Giant condensation nuclei from bursting bubbles. Nature 172, 1144–1145 (1953).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Blanchard, D. C. Bursting of bubbles at an air–water interface. Nature 173, 1048 (1954).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Blanchard, D. C. The electrification of the atmosphere by particles from bubbles in the sea. Prog. Oceanogr. 1, 71–202 (1963).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. O’ Dowd, C. D. et al. Biogenically driven organic contribution to sea spray aerosol. Lett. Nat. 431, 676–680 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Monahan, E. C. & O’Muircheartaigh, I. G. Whitecaps and the passive remote sensing of the ocean surface. Int. J. Remote Sens. 7, 627–642 (1986).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Monahan, E. C. Spiel, D. E. & Davidson, K. L. in Oceanic Whitecaps and Their Role in Air–Sea Exchange Processes (eds Monahan E.C. and Mac Niocaill, G.) 167–174 (Kluwer Academic, 1986).

  7. Lewis, E. R. & Schwartz, S. E. Sea Salt Aerosol Production: Mechanisms, Methods, Measurements and Models: A Critical Review (American Geophysical Union, 2004).

  8. Andreas, E. L., Edson, J. B., Monahan, E. C., Rouault, M. P. & Smith, S. D. The spray contribution to net evaporation from the sea: a review of recent progress. Bound.-Layer Meteorol. 72, 2–52 (1995).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Andreas, E. L. A new sea spray generation function for wind speeds up to 32 m s–1. J. Phys. Oceanogr. 28, 2175–2184 (1998).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Monahan, E. C., Staniec, A. & Vlahos P. Spume drops: their potential role in air–sea gas exchange. J. Geophys. Res. Oceans https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JC013293 (2017).

  11. MacIntyre, F. Flow patterns in breaking bubbles. J. Geophys. Res. 77, 5211–5228 (1972).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Quinn, P. K. et al. Contribution of sea surface carbon pool to organic matter enrichment in sea spray aerosol. Nat. Geosci. 7, 228–232 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Masterton, W. L. Salting coefficients for gases in seawater from scaled-particle theory. J. Solution Chem. 4, 523–534 (1975).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. ICOADS 2° × 2° Long-Term Monthly Mean Products (NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSD, accessed April 2021); http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/

  15. Anguelova, M., Barber, R. P. & Wu, J. Spume drops produced by the wind tearing of wave crests. J. Phys. Oceanogr. 29, 1156–1165 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Stanley, R. H. R., Jenkins, W. J., Lott, D. E. III & Doney, S. C. Noble gas constraints on air–sea gas exchange and bubble fluxes. J. Geophys. Res. 114, C11020 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Libes, S. Introduction to Marine Biogeochemistry (Elsevier, 2009).

  18. Wanninkhof, R. Relationship between wind speed and gas exchange over the ocean. J. Geophys. Res. 97, 7373–7382 (1992).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Sampe, T. & Xie, S. Mapping high sea winds from space: a global climatology. Bull. Am. Meteor. Soc. 88, 1965–1978 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Saunders, K. M. et al. Holocene dynamics of the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds and possible links to CO2 outgassing. Nat. Geosci. 11, 650–655 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Gray, A. et al. Autonomous biogeochemical floats detect significant carbon dioxide outgassing in the high-latitude Southern Ocean. Geophys. Res. Lett. 45, 9049–9057 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Wanninkhof, R., Sullivan, K. F. & Top, Z. Air–sea gas transfer in the Southern Ocean. J. Geophys. Res. 109, C08S19 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Young, I. R., Zieger, S. & Babanin, A. V. Global trends in wind speed and wave height. Science 332, 451–455 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. World Ocean Basemap (Esri, 2021); https://go.nature.com/3BvueBT

  25. SeaWinds on QuikSCAT Level 3 Surface Wind Speed for Climate Model Comparison Version 1 (NASA, 2012); https://doi.org/10.5067/QSSWS-CMIP1

  26. Andreas, E. An Algorithm for Fast Microphysical Calculations that Predict the Evolution of Saline Droplets (NWRA, 2013); www.nwra.com/resumes/andreas/software.php

  27. Sander, R. Compilation of Henry’s law constants (version 4.0) for water as solvent. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 15, 4399–4981 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Andreas, E. L., Vlahos, P. & Monahan, E. C. Spray-mediated air–sea gas exchange: the governing time scales. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 5, 60 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Emery, W. & Meincke, J. Global water masses—summary and review. Oceanol. Acta 9, 383–391 (1986).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Andreas, E. L. Thermal and Size Evolution of Sea Spray Droplets Report 89-11 (US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, 1989).

  31. Andreas, E. L., Persson, P. O. & Hare, J. E. A bulk turbulent air–sea flux algorithm for high-wind, spray conditions. J. Phys. Oceanogr. 38, 1581–1596 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Wannikhof, R. Relationship between wind speed and gas exchange over the ocean revisited. Limnol. Oceanogr. Methods 12, 351–362 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge E. Andreas for the creation of the original program26 upon which this model was built and without which this work could not be accomplished. We also acknowledge A. Bourganos for his assistance with proofing the AGES model code. Work was funded through NSF grant nos. 13-56541 (P.V. and E.C.M.) and 16-30846 (P.V. and E.C.M.).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut, Groton, CT, USA

    Allison Staniec, Penny Vlahos & Edward C. Monahan

Authors
  1. Allison Staniec
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Penny Vlahos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Edward C. Monahan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

A.S. modified and coded the program used for this analysis and prepared the figures used therein. P.V. assisted A.S. in an advisory capacity and provided the calculated wind-speed volume fluxes. E.C.M. is responsible for the portions of this paper that place it in a historical context and made invaluable contributions to the comprehensive coverage of sea-spray physics. All authors contributed to the preparation of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Allison Staniec.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Peer review information Nature Geoscience thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Primary Handling Editor Rebecca Neely, in collaboration with the Nature Geoscience team.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Global Regions.

The global regions used for this study (adapted from Emery and Meincke29).

Extended Data Fig. 2 Global Map of Helium Gas Exchange.

Potential gas exchange associated with a 100 µm sea spray droplet presented as the percentage of the initial gas volume lost to the atmosphere if the droplet reaches final radial equilibrium.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Global Map of Neon Gas Exchange.

Potential gas exchange associated with a 100 µm sea spray droplet presented as the percentage of the initial gas volume lost to the atmosphere if the droplet reaches final radial equilibrium.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Global Map of Argon Gas Exchange.

Potential gas exchange associated with a 100 µm sea spray droplet presented as the percentage of the initial gas volume lost to the atmosphere if the droplet reaches final radial equilibrium.

Extended Data Fig. 5 Global Map of Nitrogen Gas Exchange.

Potential gas exchange associated with a 100 µm sea spray droplet presented as the percentage of the initial gas volume lost to the atmosphere if the droplet reaches final radial equilibrium.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Tables 1–3.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 2

Fig. 2 Source Data.

Source Data Fig. 3

Fig. 3 Source Data.

Source Data Fig. 4

Fig. 4 Source Data.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Staniec, A., Vlahos, P. & Monahan, E.C. The role of sea spray in atmosphere–ocean gas exchange. Nat. Geosci. 14, 593–598 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-021-00796-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-021-00796-z

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Anthropocene

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Anthropocene newsletter — what matters in anthropocene research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Anthropocene