Sea Spray Generation at a Rocky Shoreline

Abstract

AbstractWith sea ice in the Arctic continuing to shrink, the Arctic Ocean and the surrounding marginal seas will become more like the ocean at lower latitudes. In particular, with more open water, air–sea exchange will be more intense and storms will be stronger and more frequent. The longer fetches over open water and the more energetic storms will combine to produce higher waves and more sea spray. Offshore structures—such as oil drilling, exploration, and production platforms—will face increased hazards from freezing sea spray. On the basis of sea spray observations made with a cloud-imaging probe at Mount Desert Rock (an island off the coast of Maine), the spray that artificial islands built in the Arctic might experience is quantified. Mount Desert Rock is small, low, and unvegetated and has an abrupt, rocky shoreline like these artificial islands might have. Many of the observations were at air temperatures below freezing. This paper reports the near-surface spray concentration and the rate of spray production at this rocky shoreline for spray droplets with radii from 6.25 to 143.75 μm and for wind speeds from 5 to 17 m s−1. Spray concentration increases as the cube of the wind speed, but the shape of the concentration spectrum with respect to radius does not change with wind speed. Both near-surface spray concentration and the spray-production rate are three orders of magnitude higher at this rocky shoreline than over the open ocean because of the high energy and resulting continuous white water in the surf zone.