By Sid Perkins
A new mathematical model that describes airflow across the ocean’s surface suggests that droplets whipped from the tops of waves increase the speeds of winds well above what they’d be if the spray weren’t there.
Winds are caused by differences in atmospheric pressure between one spot on the map and another. Wind speeds typically are slower near Earth’s surface than they are at higher altitudes, a friction-based phenomenon called the boundary-layer effect.
Alexandre J. Chorin, a mathematician at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues developed a model of flowing air masses that incorporates the effects of tiny suspended droplets such as ocean spray. That fine mist, whose droplets measure 20 micrometers or so across, dramatically reduces atmospheric turbulence, the team’s analyses suggest. Such turbulence is a major source of friction in the boundary layer.