Sea spray aerosol particles play an important role in controlling the composition of the atmosphere by acting as surfaces upon which heterogeneous reactions occur. Recent studies have shown that sea spray, particularly at the surface, is highly complex and thus to understand the composition of the atmosphere in marine environments, laboratory experiments must move beyond using simplistic model systems. In order to increase the complexity, many methods have been used for generating sea spray in the lab. The most common methods create bubbles in natural seawater using a variety of approaches, ranging from sintered glass frits to impinging water jets on the seawater surface. The composition of sea spray is highly sensitive to the production method and thus in order to fully understand the reactivity of atmospheric aerosols, one much use production methods that accurately mimic breaking waves. As part of studies in the Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment (CAICE), we have developed a new laboratory method for replicating sea spray in the laboratory. In this presentation, an overview will be provided, describing how the complexity of the ocean-atmosphere system was transferred into a laboratory setting to characterize the chemical complexity, heterogeneous reactivity, and climate properties of sea spray. Breaking waves in natural seawater pumped directly from the ocean are used to produce sea spray particles which are sampled into an array of state-of-the-art instruments for analysis. Results from experiments will be described demonstrating how changes in seawater composition due to biological processing affect the chemical complexity of sea spray.

Challenges in replicating the surface of sea spray aerosols in laboratory investigations

248th National Meeting (2014)

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