Impact of Breaking Waves on Sea Salt
Production and Local Change of Aerosol
Optical Properties
A. Strzalkowska, T. Zielinski, P. Makuch, P. Pakszys and T. Petelski
Abstract In this paper we discuss local impact of breaking waves on production of
sea salt aerosols and hence on the change of aerosol size distribution and particle
optical properties. Our studies were made between 17 and 27 July 2012 at the
Coastal Research Station (CRS) in Lubiatowo on the Polish Baltic coast. During the
studies aerosol optical depth was measured using Microtops II sun photometers and
AERONET and MODIS data were used to support the further analyses. We show
that with the local wave breaking phenomenon the aerosol optical depth may
increase by a magnitude of even one order and that the ensemble of aerosol particles
may shift from the dominating fine mode to coarse mode (sea salt). Such shift may
have a strong local impact on the radiative forcing and hence on a local climate.
Keywords Aerosol Á Baltic Á Microtops Á AERONET
1 Introduction
Atmospheric aerosols originate from a wide variety of sources in both marine and
continental environments. Aerosol content varies significantly depending upon
whether the air mass is natural or modified anthropogenically, marine or continental, rural or urban (Zielinski and Zielinski 2002).
Therefore, characterizing aerosols not only requires describing their spatial and
temporal distributions but their multi-component composition, particle size distribution and physical properties as well. Aerosols formed over land by either primary
or secondary formation processes are transported over the oceans and contribute
substantially to the aerosol concentrations over the oceans (Kastendeuch and Najjar
2003; Smirnov et al. 2003; Glantz et al. 2006). Sea spray aerosol is directly produced at the sea surface through the interactions between wind and surface waves
A. Strzalkowska (&) Á T. Zielinski Á P. Makuch Á P. Pakszys Á T. Petelski
Institute of Oceanology of Polish Academy of Sciences, Sopot, Poland
e-mail: strzalkowska@iopan.gda.pl
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
T. Zielinski et al. (eds.), Impact of Climate Changes on Marine Environments,
GeoPlanet: Earth and Planetary Sciences, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-14283-8_2
7
Production and Local Change of Aerosol
Optical Properties
A. Strzalkowska, T. Zielinski, P. Makuch, P. Pakszys and T. Petelski
Abstract In this paper we discuss local impact of breaking waves on production of
sea salt aerosols and hence on the change of aerosol size distribution and particle
optical properties. Our studies were made between 17 and 27 July 2012 at the
Coastal Research Station (CRS) in Lubiatowo on the Polish Baltic coast. During the
studies aerosol optical depth was measured using Microtops II sun photometers and
AERONET and MODIS data were used to support the further analyses. We show
that with the local wave breaking phenomenon the aerosol optical depth may
increase by a magnitude of even one order and that the ensemble of aerosol particles
may shift from the dominating fine mode to coarse mode (sea salt). Such shift may
have a strong local impact on the radiative forcing and hence on a local climate.
Keywords Aerosol Á Baltic Á Microtops Á AERONET
1 Introduction
Atmospheric aerosols originate from a wide variety of sources in both marine and
continental environments. Aerosol content varies significantly depending upon
whether the air mass is natural or modified anthropogenically, marine or continental, rural or urban (Zielinski and Zielinski 2002).
Therefore, characterizing aerosols not only requires describing their spatial and
temporal distributions but their multi-component composition, particle size distribution and physical properties as well. Aerosols formed over land by either primary
or secondary formation processes are transported over the oceans and contribute
substantially to the aerosol concentrations over the oceans (Kastendeuch and Najjar
2003; Smirnov et al. 2003; Glantz et al. 2006). Sea spray aerosol is directly produced at the sea surface through the interactions between wind and surface waves
A. Strzalkowska (&) Á T. Zielinski Á P. Makuch Á P. Pakszys Á T. Petelski
Institute of Oceanology of Polish Academy of Sciences, Sopot, Poland
e-mail: strzalkowska@iopan.gda.pl
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
T. Zielinski et al. (eds.), Impact of Climate Changes on Marine Environments,
GeoPlanet: Earth and Planetary Sciences, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-14283-8_2
7