0454 Sea spray aerosol properties during a phytoplankton bloom in the coastal ocean of the Faroe Islands

Breaking waves on the ocean surface emit sea spray aerosols to the atmosphere. These sea spray aerosols are a major source of uncertainty in climate models. The physical processes governing sea spray production play an important part in determining sea spray aerosol size, emission, and chemical composition. Sea spray affect climate directly by interaction with radiation from the sun or indirectly by acting as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN).

We conducted a three-week field campaign on the Faroe Islands during summer 2019 using a state-of-the-art sea spray simulation chamber. The campaign was conducted to investigate the impact of a phytoplankton bloom on both the particle production flux and the chemical composition of the particles.

Main results suggests that the particle size distribution, the total number flux of aerosols produced in the chamber, and the critical supersaturation of dried sea spray aerosols at 80 nm were constant throughout the campaign. This is despite the chemical composition of organic matter both the seawater and the SSA were impacted by the presence of the phytoplankton bloom.