Abstract
Air bubbles and strong turbulence that form in water from breaking waves play important roles in gas transfer across the air-sea interface (Melville, 1996). The entrained bubbles increase the total area of air-water interface per unit volume and enhance local gas dissolution into water. The dissolved gases mix in the water mass diffuse by the strong turbulence. These gas transfer-enhancing factors have been parameterized by only wind speed in models of gas transfer velocity in the deep ocean. Bulk parameters based on wind speed cannot be used for a surf zone, where waves break due to shoaling. In a surf zone, the cross-shore distributions of entrained bubbles and the turbulent intensity vary as waves propagate. The physical process of gas transfer under the complex air-water turbulent flows in breaking waves has not been clarified. Thus, breaking-wave factors that enhance gas transfer in a surf zone cannot be parameterized. In this study, we observed the transport process of dissolved carbon dioxide (DCO2) under air-water turbulent flows in a laboratory surf zone using image measurement systems.References
Melville (1996): The role of surface-wave breaking in air-sea interaction, Ann Rev of Fluid Mech, 28, pp. 279-321.
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