"Collaborative Proposal: Gas Flux Under Hurricane Winds"

University Of Rhode Island, Kingston RI

Investigators

Abstract

Gas Flux under Hurricane Winds Eric D'Asaro UW Craig McNeil URI The air-sea fluxes of O2 and N2 will be measured at wind speeds of 30 ms-1 or greater using a newly developed polarographic oxygen sensor and an improved total gas tension sensor mounted on neutrally buoyant floats and air-deployed into the path of hurricanes. These data will be used to extend the gas flux parameterizations to higher wind speeds. This is important because the flux of CO2 between the atmosphere and the ocean across the air-sea interface is a major term in global carbon budgets. The gas flux parameterizations now used to compute this flux are highly uncertain at high wind speeds. The floats will make profiles of O, N, temperature and salinity before and after the storm, accurately following the 3-dimensional motions of water parcels within the surface mixed layer. Gas fluxes will be inferred using 4 different methods; each method is sensitive to different errors and thus the use of many methods will provide a check against each other. The existing gas tension sensors will be modified to increase the area of the gas exchange membrane in order to increase their response time and support the methods of suing covariance fluxes and flux profiles from changes in gas content. Detailed modeling of bubble-induced gas fluxes from both measurements and Large Eddy Simulations will be used to understand mechanisms of gas flux at high wind speed. Float deployments will be made as part of the ONR-funded CBLAST field experiments in 2003 and 2004.