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Air bubbles that are created at the ocean surface when waves break significantly enhance the transfer of gases between the atmosphere and the ocean, accounting for roughly 40% of the oceanic uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. An accurate, physically-based representation of the bubbles’ production and behavior underwater is therefore a critical component of models of the global climate.
In this talk, I will present measurements of bubbles produced by breaking waves in a laboratory wind-wave channel. Then, moving to simulations and small-scale laboratory experiments with imposed water turbulence, I will describe the physical mechanisms controlling bubbles’ break-up and buoyant rise through turbulence that regulate the transfer of gases between air and the water through their interfaces.