The influence of temperature on bubble formation under breaking waves

The bubble plumes generated by breaking waves have a complex structure that is highly dependent on the local environment. These temporary bubble populations have a strong influence on many processes at the air-sea interface, for example, air-sea gas transfer, aerosol production, sound transmission, and optical absorption. To quantify the importance of the bubble plume, two things are required: the state of the initial bubble plume and an understanding of the longer-term plume evolution. This paper focuses on the formation of the initial bubble plume. I’ll present evidence showing the effect of temperature on the fragmentation of single bubbles in the laboratory. These results imply that changing the water temperature has consequences for ocean bubble plume structure, bubble size distribution, and whole bubble plume acoustics, and these will be discussed.