The temperature of evaporating sea spray droplets

Abstract

Evaporating sea spray droplets are often assumed to be at the temperature of a well-ventilated wet-bulb thermometer, Twet. Although this assumption may be accurate enough in practice, it is incorrect on theoretical grounds. Spray droplets have curved surfaces, they contain dissolved salts, and they may be small enough that the air and water vapor surrounding them do not behave as continuous fluids. Each of these characteristics of aqueous solution droplets can potentially affect vapor exchange at a droplet's surface and, thus, its temperature; but the wet-bulk temperature accounts for none of these. This paper uses a full microphysical model to accurately predict the evaporating temperature, Tev, of pure and saline droplets to investigate how close Twet is to this temperature. -from Author