78th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics (Nov 23 — 25, 2025)
P039: Sea spray emission by collective bubble bursting
Bubbles of many sizes rise, cluster, and burst in a bubbling tank, mimicking the air-sea interaction processes of ocean bubbles entrained by breaking waves. In the atmosphere, drops emitted by bubble bursting then evaporate, leaving dry particles that scatter light and serve as cloud condensation nuclei. By studying collective bubble bursting and drop production in a controlled laboratory experiment, we seek to inform the sea spray emission function of large-scale climate models.A single image captures the rising underwater bubbles, the clusters of surface bubbles, and the largest drops produced when collective bubbles burst in an artificial seawater solution. Jet drop production is featured in the center of the image, showing one mechanism by which bursting bubbles can emit drops. By combining several measurements of bubbles, drops, and dry particles for various initial bubble size distributions, we can find a link between bursting bubbles (0.03-5 mm) and the drops (0.05-500 μm) they emit.
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