Turbulent Exchange: Aerosols, Bubbles And Gases

Lead Research Organisation: University College London
Department Name: Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

There is now a consensus that global climate is changing in response to increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. These gases have natural as well as man-made sources and sinks. For carbon dioxide the largest sink is the ocean, which absorbs between 30% and 50% of the CO2 generated by the burning of fossil fuel. The direction of the exchange of gases between atmosphere and ocean depends on the difference in gas concentration between the air and water, and on a number of physical processes that modify the rate of the exchange. The most important of these processes is turbulent mixing in both the air and water close to the surface. This increases with wind speed, but the relationship is complicated by other factors such as the waves state and the thermodynamic stability of the near-surface layers of both ocean and atmosphere. At high wind speeds wave breaking generates bubbles, mixing air down into the water column. The presence of bubbles increases the rate of gas exchange, but the detailed nature of the process is not fully understood and there is considerable disagreement about the exact form of the equations that describe the rate of gas transfer. This is largely a result of a lack of sufficiently detailed measurements.
Wave breaking and bubbles are also closely linked to the formation of sea-spray aerosol particles - these are important as cloud condensation nuclei. Aerosols are generated by the bursting of bubbles at the sea surface. The rate of aerosol
formation is often expressed as a function of whitecap fractions on the sea surface, but there is an uncertainty of about a factor of 10 in the production rate. This suggests that whitecap fraction alone does not control the production rate, but that
factors such as the size and number of bubbles produced by breaking waves may vary with other factors such as size or steepness of the wave.
This project is a UK contribution to a US research cruise that aims to examine the impact of wave breaking and bubble processes on air-sea gas exchange. We will measure whitecap fraction, wave state, wave breaking statistics, and bubble
properties beneath breaking waves. Measurements will be made from an 11-m spar buoy equipped with wave wires to measure the local wave height at high spatial resolution, a bubble camera to measure large bubbles near the surface, and
2 acoustical resonators to measure smaller bubbles deeper below the surface. A separate Waverider buoy will also be deployed to make longer term and independent measurements of the wave spectra. On the ship we will make direct measurements of aerosol fluxes via the eddy covariance technique, along with those of heat, water vapour, CO2, and momentum. Our partners from NOAA and the University of Hawi'i will measure fluxes of several different gases: CO2, CO, and DMS. The joint measurements of gas fluxes, and whitecap and bubble properties will allow the influence of bubbles on the flux to be evaluated directly against a variety of existing parameterizations.

Planned Impact

The ultimate impact of this work will be through improvements to air-sea exchange parameterizations in climate models. This will improve the representativeness of wind-speed dependant gas transfer and sea spray aerosol production within climate simulations - both currently have large uncertainties associated with them. Air sea gas transfer controls the uptake of CO2 to the oceans - the largest single sink for atmospheric CO2. Improved representation of these processes in climate models will provide more accurate prediction of future atmospheric CO2 concentrations and hence of future climate. In the short term this will provide better guidance to policy makers on steps necessary to limit the environmental and human impacts of changing climate. Links with the Met Office/Hadley Centre provide a pathway to transfer our results directly to model development teams.
Another direct impact of this work is on satellite retrievals of ocean properties such as chlorophyll concentration in surface waters and whitecap fraction. Satellite-based measurements are the only practical means of making globally distributed observations of a wide range of parameters relevant to operational weather and oceanographic forecasts, and environmental monitoring. The provision of in situ measurements for development and validation of retrieval algorithms will help improve the quality of such retrievals in the future. We have collaborative links with several groups working in these areas and are working actively with them on validation projects. The sea spray source flux measurements are of relevance to applications in near-surface electro-magnetic and electrooptical propagation, and in particular to defence users. We have links with these communities through both the Met Office and DSTL. We also have a related joint project about to start with the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry in Japan to validate model predictions of sea-spray fluxes for a specialist application to forecasting of snow that may be a hazard to overhead power lines during land-falling storms.
Education and public outreach activities will include participation in the University of Southampton Express Roadshow (see impact plan), talks to school groups, and the maintenance of a fieldwork blog (including interactive comment with school classes, allowing pupils to ask questions of staff in the field during field campaign). These activities will aid the national needs to make rigorous science accessible to enable the UK to have a scientifically informed public base, and encourage and enthuse the next generation of scientists and engineers. A formal outreach plan has been drafted to aid communication with the media, general public, and schools.
 
Title Popular science book 
Description I wrote a popular science book which includes stories from the this research project. The information conveyed that is relevant to this award was only partly the science itself, and mainly what it's like to be a scientist in the field. The book is called Storm in a Teacup, and is on sale worldwide (with 11 translation deals). 
Type Of Art Artefact (including digital) 
Year Produced 2016 
Impact I get fairly regular e-mails from readers, with compliments about the book saying that it has changed their perspective on physics. I hope that it will also improve the confidence of laypeople who don't define themselves as scientists to explore the scientific world. 
URL http://www.helenczerski.net/book/book.html
 
Description We developed and tested a new camera system for studying the bubbles under breaking waves in intense storms at sea. This has provided an important tool, not just for this project but also for future projects.

We have collected important data on the relationship of sub-surface bubbles in the ocean to the gas exchange across the ocean surface. This is an important scientific area (with applications in weather and climate models) but we are very data-poor. The measurements that we made are an important contribution to our perspective on these subsurface bubbles and their influence on the earth system.
Exploitation Route This work will be incorporated in current and future models of CO2 uptake by the oceans, and also models of ocean aerosol production. This is still a field where we lack a detailed mechanistic understanding of the processes involved, and the final data set will be of interest to many other academic groups.
Sectors Energy

Environment

 
Description Extensive public engagement activities have been undertaken based on this research, including newspaper articles (authored by the PI), mention in a popular science book, and an extensive range of public talks and events on the oceans, the fieldwork undertaken and the importance of air-sea gas transfer.
First Year Of Impact 2015
Impact Types Cultural

Societal

 
Title Near-surface bubble size distributions and co-located upward-pointing sonar data collected in high wind conditions in the North Atlantic, October-November 2013. 
Description The data included in this publication are bubble measurements from the HiWINGS (High Wind Air-sea Gas Exchange Study) cruise from October 9, 2013 to November 14, 2013. An 11 metre long free-floating spar buoy was deployed from the R/V Knorr KN213-3 cruise to sample bubbles during four major storms in the North Atlantic, and all the major bubble data is included here. The buoy included an upward-looking sonar, an acoustical resonator, a bubble camera, and a foam camera. It was released into the water to float freely for the duration of the storm and was retrieved by the ship after the storm had passed. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The publication of two papers. 
URL https://www.bodc.ac.uk/data/published_data_library/catalogue/10.5285/c972e316-2b93-1b4e-e053-6c86abc...
 
Description Participation in methane bubble measurement fieldwork 
Organisation Dutch Research Council
Department Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research
Country Netherlands 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution I participated in a research cruise to the North Sea, and made methane bubble measurements with the specialised bubble camera funded by this grant.
Collaborator Contribution They organised the ship time and all the science on board with the exception of my contribution.
Impact No outcomes yet.
Start Year 2019
 
Description Extensive public engagement and media work, giving hundreds of public talks, regular interviewee for radio and tv, presenting BBC documentaries. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact As a BBC science presenter and regular science writer, I give a huge number of public talks and performances, radio and tv interviews each year, about my own research (in addition to more general science topics). I also write about my research expeditions (for example, in the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal), and I include my own research experience in my BBC work whenever possible. This reaches hundreds of thousands of people each year, both in the UK and internationally.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019
URL http://www.helenczerski.net
 
Description Ongoing media work 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact I give regular talks to the general public about the ocean and my research, and the fieldwork I do is almost always mentioned. This includes talks at UK science festivals (and occasionally overseas festivals), to schools, for the general public in other ways, and evening theatre performances (for example, with the Cosmic Shambles Network). The audiences can be from 100 to 4000.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022,2023
URL https://www.helenczerski.net/talks
 
Description Participation in large-scale theatre performance discussing our research 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact I and two PhD students were part of an immersive theatre experience called New Atlantis, which was open to the public for seven nights. The aim of the performance was to get the audience to consider climate change and water issues, by directly engaging with researchers in a theatrical situation. We took real equipment and real data, and were one of several groups of researchers participating in the performance.

http://www.theartsdesk.com/theatre/new-atlantis-crystal
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.newhamrecorder.co.uk/entertainment/theatre/immersive_victoria_docks_play_gives_chance_to_...
 
Description Presented a documentary about the ocean for the BBC, including my own research 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The programme "Ocean Autopsy" will be broadcast in the spring of 2020 on BBC4. It includes a section where I use the bubble camera funded by this grant, in addition to extensive other coverage of current ocean science issues.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020