Sea Spray Aerosol Fluxes in the Near
Water Boundary Layer—Review
of Recent Achievements
Piotr Markuszewski
Abstract This chapter is dedicated to small particles (solid or liquid) generated
from the sea surface, so called sea spray aerosol (SSA). Undeniable importance of
SSA on climate determines oceanographers and atmospheric scientists to make lots
of efforts in resolving all uncertainties connected with measurements, flux parameterizations or transformation processes in the marine boundary layer. A view of the
seriousness of the problem gives a fact that the estimated SSA mass emission is still
loaded with 80 % relative error. The goal of this text is to briefly introduce the
reader to the issue of SSA emission from the sea surface, the main aspects of SSA
flux measurements based on selected, most influential articles from recent years.
1 Introduction
The atmospheric aerosol is very important for the geosciences study. Both aerosol
impacts: direct effect (absorption and scattering of light jointly called extinction)
and its importance as cloud condensation nuclei (indirect effect) is well known and
extremely popular in recent literature. Especially interesting and insufficiently
explained is the parameterization of aerosol emission from the Earth surface. This
study is very important for atmospheric and global climate modeling. The most
common aerosol is sea spray aerosol (SSA). 70 % of Earth surface is covered by
oceans and seas, that is why the aerosol emission from the sea surface is the highest.
According to the newest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report
(Boucher et al. 2013) the global emission of SSA is estimated in range 1,400–6,800
(Tg/year), which, as presented in Table 1 dominates all other emissions of the main
natural aerosols species, obtained from various model simulations.
P. Markuszewski (&)
Physical Oceanography Department, Air-Sea Interaction Laboratory, Institute of Oceanology
of Polish Academy of Sciences, Powstańców Warszawy 55, Sopot 81-712, Poland
e-mail: pmarkusz@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_4
37
Water Boundary Layer—Review
of Recent Achievements
Piotr Markuszewski
Abstract This chapter is dedicated to small particles (solid or liquid) generated
from the sea surface, so called sea spray aerosol (SSA). Undeniable importance of
SSA on climate determines oceanographers and atmospheric scientists to make lots
of efforts in resolving all uncertainties connected with measurements, flux parameterizations or transformation processes in the marine boundary layer. A view of the
seriousness of the problem gives a fact that the estimated SSA mass emission is still
loaded with 80 % relative error. The goal of this text is to briefly introduce the
reader to the issue of SSA emission from the sea surface, the main aspects of SSA
flux measurements based on selected, most influential articles from recent years.
1 Introduction
The atmospheric aerosol is very important for the geosciences study. Both aerosol
impacts: direct effect (absorption and scattering of light jointly called extinction)
and its importance as cloud condensation nuclei (indirect effect) is well known and
extremely popular in recent literature. Especially interesting and insufficiently
explained is the parameterization of aerosol emission from the Earth surface. This
study is very important for atmospheric and global climate modeling. The most
common aerosol is sea spray aerosol (SSA). 70 % of Earth surface is covered by
oceans and seas, that is why the aerosol emission from the sea surface is the highest.
According to the newest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report
(Boucher et al. 2013) the global emission of SSA is estimated in range 1,400–6,800
(Tg/year), which, as presented in Table 1 dominates all other emissions of the main
natural aerosols species, obtained from various model simulations.
P. Markuszewski (&)
Physical Oceanography Department, Air-Sea Interaction Laboratory, Institute of Oceanology
of Polish Academy of Sciences, Powstańców Warszawy 55, Sopot 81-712, Poland
e-mail: pmarkusz@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_4
37