Turbulent Latent and Sensible Heat Flux in the Presence of Evaporative Droplets

Ocean spray could possibly influence hurricane intensity through latent and sensible heat exchanges yet these physics are not resolved by large scale hurricane simulations. The researchers use direct numerical simulations to better resolve the small scale droplet physics. The simulations do not simulate the entire hurricane boundary layer but they do explain in detail the energy coupling between air and spray to provide physical insight. Three cases are simulated with and without droplets. The authors find the droplets act as a bridge between sensible and latent heat and they can influence the total energy flux as well as change the distribution between latent and sensible heat transfer under certain conditions. The sea spray does not have an additive increase to sensible heat and latent heat because some of the sensible energy is taken from the air and transferred into energy carried by the vapor through the droplet evaporative mechanisms.