On the Prospects for Observing Spray-Mediated Air–Sea Transfer in Wind–Water Tunnels

Nature is wild, unconstrained, and often dangerous. In particular, studying air-sea interaction in winds typical of tropical cyclones can place researchers, their instruments, and even their research platforms in jeopardy. As an alternative, laboratory wind-water tunnels can probe 10-m equivalent winds of hurricane strength under conditions that are well constrained and place no personnel or equipment at risk. Wind-water tunnels, however, cannot simulate all aspects of air-sea interaction in high winds. The authors use here the comprehensive data from the Air-Sea Interaction Salt Water Tank (ASIST) wind-water tunnel at the University of Miami that Jeong, Haus, and Donelan published in this journal to demonstrate how spray-mediated processes are different over the open ocean and in wind tunnels. A key result is that, at all high-wind speeds, the ASIST tunnel was able to quantify the so-called interfacial air-sea enthalpy fluxthe flux controlled by molecular processes right at the air-water interface. This flux cannot be measured in high winds over the open ocean because the ubiquitous spray-mediated enthalpy transfer confounds the measurements. The resulting parameterization for this interfacial flux has implications for modeling air-sea heat fluxes from moderate winds to winds of hurricane strength.