Sea salt aerosol
Sea salt aerosol, which originally comes from sea spray, is one of the most widely distributed natural aerosols. Sea salt aerosols are characterized as non-light-absorbing, highly hygroscopic, and having coarse particle size. Some sea salt dominated aerosols could have a single scattering albedo as large as ~0.97. Due to the hygroscopy, a sea salt particle can serve as a very efficient cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), altering cloud reflectivity, lifetime, and precipitation process. According to the IPCC report, the total sea salt flux from ocean to atmosphere is ~3300 Tg/yr.
Many physical processes over ocean surface can generate sea salt aerosols. One common cause is the bursting of air bubbles, which are entrained by the wind stress during the whitecap formation. Another is tearing of drops from wave tops.Wind speed is the key factor to determine the production rate in both mechanisms. Sea salt particle number concentration can reach 50 cm−3 or more with high winds (>10 m s−1), compared to ~10 cm−3 or less under moderate wind regimes. Due to the dependence on wind speed, it could be expected that sea-salt particle production and its impacts on climate may vary with climate change.
Sea salt aerosols are mainly constituted of sodium chloride (NaCl), but other chemical ions which are common in sea water, such as K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, SO42− and so on, can also be found. Recent study revealed that sea salt aerosols contain a substantial amount of organic matter. Mostly, organic materials are internally mixed due to the drying of air bubbles at the organic-rich sea surface. The fraction of organic components increases with the decreasing particle size. The contained organic materials change the optical properties of sea salt as well as the hygroscopicity, especially when some insoluble organic matter is induced.
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