Whitecaps, sea-salt aerosols, and climate

Oceanic whitecaps are the major source of sea-salt aerosols. Sea-salt aerosols are the dominant natural aerosols in remote marine air and contribute to radiative and chemical processes affecting climate. The inclusion of the effects of sea-salt aerosols improves the predictions of climate models. The generation of sea-salt aerosols is the first of many processes that must be modeled. Modeling the production of sea-salt aerosols usually needs whitecap coverage, W, and its dependence on wind speed, U10. Various measurements of sea-salt production, however, do not constrain well the predictions of the sea-salt generation function using the relation W(U10) alone. Other variables, beside wind, affect the formation of whitecaps and production of sea-salt aerosols. In addition, the sea-salt generation function needs extension of its applicability toward smaller sea-salt aerosol sizes.