An acoustic method to measure sea spray spume droplets in-situ

Sea spray spume, droplets generated through the interactions of wind and waves, can critically alter the heat, momentum, mass and gas exchanges between the ocean and atmosphere during extreme wind conditions. Most operational forecasting models, however, do not consider sea spray spume physics in their models as the uncertainty in sea spray parameterizations is simply too large (roughly three orders of magnitude). While this uncertainty is in part caused by the extreme complexity in the droplet generation physics, considerable uncertainty comes from the difficulty in measuring sea spray and, consequently, the near absence of field observations.

Here, we present a new method to measure sea spray spume droplets in extreme winds based on acoustics. Specifically, hydrophones are positioned in the air flow laden with droplets to record droplet impact acoustics. The hydrophones were initially exposed to monodisperse free-falling droplets in the absence of wind in a first set of experiments. We find that both the magnitude and duration of the acoustic response to droplet impact are a function of the droplet diameter and the impact velocity. A second set of experiments were performed in a high-speed wind tunnel to validate the hydrophone’s response in extreme winds and under continuous exposure of droplets. Droplets ranging from less than 100 µm to 3 mm were released using a spray nozzle in winds up to 30 m/s, and their speed and diameter were independently measured using multiple exposure photography. Droplet impact measurements in the wind tunnel were found to be consistent with the initial experiments of free-falling droplets in stagnant air and provide estimates of the accuracy of the developed method. The range of droplet sizes that can be measured was found to depend on the size and sensitivity of the hydrophone, and wind speed. The results show that this new method provides significant opportunities in measuring sea spray spume droplets in situ at close proximity to the ocean surface. Field experiments to do so are currently in planning.