Impact of Sea Spray and Sea Surface Roughness on the Upper Ocean Response to Super Typhoon Haitang (2005)

• Published in: Journal of physical oceanography Vol. 51; no. 6; p. 1929
• Main Authors: Zhang, Lianxin, Zhang, Xuefeng, Perrie, William, Guan, Changlong, Dan, Bo, Sun, Chunjian, Wu, Xinrong, Liu, Kexiu, Li, Dong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston American Meteorological Society 01.06.2021
• Subjects: Cooling; Drag coefficient; Drag coefficients; Heat flux; Heat transfer; Hurricanes; Laboratories; Momentum; Momentum flux; Momentum transfer; Ocean circulation; Ocean temperature; Ocean waves; Oceans; Parameterization; Quadrants; Sea spray; Sea surface; Sea surface cooling; Sea surface roughness; Spray; Storms; Surface cooling; Surface roughness; Surface water waves; Turbulent fluxes; Typhoons; Upper ocean; Wind; Winds
• ISSN: 0022-3670; 1520-0485
• DOI: 10.1175/JPO-D-20-0208.1

Abstract A coupled ocean-wave-sea spray model system is used to investigate the impacts of sea spray and sea surface roughness on the response of the upper ocean to the passage of the super typhoon Haitang. Sea spray mediated heat and momentum fluxes are derived from an improved version of Fairall’s heat fluxes formulation (Zhang et al., 2017) and Andreas’s sea spray-mediated momentum flux models. For winds ranging from low to extremely high speeds, a new parameterization scheme for the sea surface roughness is developed, in which the effects of wave state and sea spray are introduced. In this formulation, the drag coefficient has minimal values over the right quadrant of the typhoon track, along which the typhoon-generated waves are longer, smoother, and older, compared to other quadrants. Using traditional interfacial air-sea turbulent (sensible, latent, and momentum) fluxes, the sea surface cooling response to typhoon Haitang is overestimated by 1 °C, which can be compensated by the effects of sea spray and ocean waves on the right side of the storm. Inclusion of sea spray-mediated turbulent fluxes and sea surface roughness, modulated by ocean waves, gives enhanced cooling along the left edges of the cooling area by 0.2 °C, consistent with the upper ocean temperature observations.