Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T01:14:29.053Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The fragmentation of the ocean: spray formation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2012

Yves Couder
Yves Couder*
Affiliation:
Matières et Systèmes Complexes, Université Paris 7 Denis Diderot, CNRS - UMR 7057, Bâtiment Condorcet, 10 rue Alice Domon et Léonie Duquet 75205 Paris, CEDEX 13, France
*
†Email address for correspondence: couder@lps.ens.fr
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

By what process can droplets be extracted out of the sea? This is an old problem, well-documented by precise field measurements of the size distribution of the spray aerosols. Lhuissier & Villermaux (J. Fluid Mech., this issue, vol. 696, 2012, pp. 5–44) study and characterize the bursting of an emerging bubble. They show that this single type of event can, by itself, generate the droplet size distributions in a sea spray. This is a remarkable result showing how, in a complex system, a statistical distribution can be entirely produced by the dynamics of one dominant phenomenon.

Type
Focus on Fluids
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 696 , 10 April 2012 , pp. 1 - 4
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

References

1. Aitken, J. 1881 Dust, fog, and clouds. Nature 23, 384–385.Google Scholar
2. Aliverti, G. & Lovera, G. 1939 I phenomeni meteorologica sul oceano e il campo ellectrico terrestre. Atti. Real. Acad. Sci., Torino 74, 573–590.Google Scholar
3. Blanchard, D. C. 1964 Sea-to-air transport of surface active material. Science 146, 396–397.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4. Blanchard, D. C. & Syzdek, L. D. 1970 Mechanisms for the water-to-air transfer and concentration of bacteria. Science 170, 626–628.Google Scholar
5. Fahlgren, C., Hagström, A˚, Nilsson, E. D. & Zweifel, U.-L. 2010 Annual variations in the diversity, viability, and origin of airborne bacteria. Appl. Env. Microbio. 76, 3015–3025.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
6. Lhuissier, H. & Villermaux, E. 2012 Bursting bubble aerosols. J. Fluid Mech. 696, 5–44.Google Scholar
7. Mason, B. J. 1954 Bursting of air bubbles at the surface of sea waters. Nature 174, 470–471.Google Scholar
8. Preobrazhenskii, L. 1973 Estimate of the content of spray-drops in the near-water layer of the atmosphere. Fluid Mech. Sov. Res. 2, 95–100.Google Scholar
9. Villermaux, E. & Bossa, B. 2009 Single-drop fragmentation determines size distribution of raindrops. Nature Phys. 5, 697–702.Google Scholar
10. Woodcock, A. H. 1953 Salt nuclei in marine air as a function of altitude and wind force. J. Meteorol. 10, 362–371.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11. Wu, J., Murray, J. & Lai, R. 1984 Production and distributions of sea spray. J. Geophys. Res. 89, 8163–8169.Google Scholar