SEASAW
Field Observations of Sea Spray, Gas Fluxes and Whitecaps: SEASAW
People: Prof. Michael Smith, Dr Ian Brooks, Dr Jim McQuaid
Description
Sea spray aerosol particles, generated primarily by the action of the wind on the ocean surface, make a major contribution to the atmospheric aerosol over the global oceans. Their ability to participate in heterogeneous atmospheric chemical processes and especially their activity as cloud condensation nuclei make them very important in global climate processes. Similarly, the air-sea fluxes of trace gases, are influenced by wind speed and whitecap processes. The flux of carbon dioxide between atmosphere and ocean is a controlling factor on the concentration of CO 2 in the atmosphere, but there are large uncertainties in the size of the flux as a function of wind speed; and the effects of factors such as wave breaking, surfacants, etc are almost entirely unknown. This project, involving two or more research cruises in the NE Atlantic, will measure these fluxes by direct eddy-covariance methods and other techniques in order to determine their dependence upon environmental factors.
The project is lead by Dr Ian Brooks at Leeds University, working with Prof Mike Smith and Dr Jim McQuaid at Leeds and in collaboration with Dr Meric Srokosz, Dr Margaret Yelland, and Dr David Woolf at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.
PhD Studentship: Applications are invited for a PhD studentship to study the parameterization of trace-gas fluxes over the ocean. Funding is anticipated via the NERC quota awards to the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science. Contact Dr Ian Brooks for details.
Funded by: NERC
Start Date: Jan 2006
End Date: Dec 2009