Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-2006

DOI

10.1029/2005gl024769

Publication Title

Geophysical Research Letters

Volume

33

Issue

7

Pages

L07605 (4 pages)

Abstract

[1] A series of measurements was conducted in the AirSea Interaction Saltwater Tank (ASIST) to study the response of the air-water interfacial molecular sublayer under various heat flux and wind speed conditions. In-situ gradients were measured with a platinum-plated tungsten wire microthermometer, which resolved the temperature of the thermally conductive sublayer. Air-sea heat flux was controlled by changing the air-water temperature difference (ΔTAW) and the wind speed, and measurements were made for three ΔTAW regimes over a range of wind speeds. A function was fitted to the measured temperature profiles as a way of extracting the boundary layer thickness in a consistent fashion, from which the λ coefficient after Saunders (1967) was computed. This dataset returned a mean λ coefficient of 2.4 ± 0.5, which was generally lower than previous studies, and was found to be independent of wind speed in the range of 1 to 9 ms-1.

Original Publication Citation

Ward, B., & Donelan, M. A. (2006). Thermometric measurements of the molecular sublayer at the air-water interface. Geophysical Research Letters, 33(7), L07605. doi:10.1029/2005gl024769

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