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1. Coarse sea spray inhibits lightning

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31714-5  

   Pan, Zengxin; Mao, Feiyue; Rosenfeld, Daniel; Zhu, Yannian; Zang, Lin; Lu, Xin; Thornton, Joel A.; Holzworth, Robert H.; Yin, Jianhua; Efraim, Avichay; et al (August 2022, Nature Communications)

   Abstract The known effects of thermodynamics and aerosols can well explain the thunderstorm activity over land, but fail over oceans. Here, tracking the full lifecycle of tropical deep convective cloud clusters shows that adding fine aerosols significantly increases the lightning density for a given rainfall amount over both ocean and land. In contrast, adding coarse sea salt (dry radius > 1 μm), known as sea spray, weakens the cloud vigor and lightning by producing fewer but larger cloud drops, which accelerate warm rain at the expense of mixed-phase precipitation. Adding coarse sea spray can reduce the lightning by 90% regardless of fine aerosol loading. These findings reconcile long outstanding questions about the differences between continental and marine thunderstorms, and help to understand lightning and underlying aerosol-cloud-precipitation interaction mechanisms and their climatic effects. 

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2. Diel cycle of sea spray aerosol concentration

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25579-3  

   Flores, J. Michel; Bourdin, Guillaume; Kostinski, Alexander B.; Altaratz, Orit; Dagan, Guy; Lombard, Fabien; Haëntjens, Nils; Boss, Emmanuel; Sullivan, Matthew B.; Gorsky, Gabriel; et al (December 2021, Nature Communications)

   Abstract Sea spray aerosol (SSA) formation have a major role in the climate system, but measurements at a global-scale of this micro-scale process are highly challenging. We measured high-resolution temporal patterns of SSA number concentration over the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and the Pacific Ocean covering over 42,000 km. We discovered a ubiquitous 24-hour rhythm to the SSA number concentration, with concentrations increasing after sunrise, remaining higher during the day, and returning to predawn values after sunset. The presence of dominating continental aerosol transport can mask the SSA cycle. We did not find significant links between the diel cycle of SSA number concentration and diel variations of surface winds, atmospheric physical properties, radiation, pollution, nor oceanic physical properties. However, the daily mean sea surface temperature positively correlated with the magnitude of the day-to-nighttime increase in SSA concentration. Parallel diel patterns in particle sizes were also detected in near-surface waters attributed to variations in the size of particles smaller than ~1 µm. These variations may point to microbial day-to-night modulation of bubble-bursting dynamics as a possible cause of the SSA cycle. 

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3. The rapid acidification of sea spray aerosols

   https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.4926  

   Angle, Kyle; Grassian, Vicki H.; Ault, Andrew P. (January 2022, Physics today)

   This quick study looked at a method for determining aerosol acidity developed by Prof. Ault and utilized by Prof. Grassian and Mr. Angle to study size-dependence in sea spray aerosol. 

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4. Wintertime Arctic Sea Spray Aerosol Composition Controlled by Sea Ice Lead Microbiology

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.9b00541  

   Kirpes, Rachel M.; Bonanno, Daniel; May, Nathaniel W.; Fraund, Matthew; Barget, Anna J.; Moffet, Ryan C.; Ault, Andrew P.; Pratt, Kerri A. (September 2019, ACS Central Science)
5. Sensitivity of Sea‐Surface Enthalpy and Momentum Fluxes to Sea Spray Microphysics

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JC017774  

   Sroka, Sydney; Emanuel, Kerry (December 2021, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans)

   Abstract Accurate estimates of air‐sea enthalpy and momentum fluxes are critically important for hurricane intensity predictions. However, calculating these fluxes is challenging due to the nature of the air‐sea transition region. At extreme wind speeds, a substantial amount of sea spray is lofted making it necessary to calculate the sea spray‐mediated enthalpy and momentum fluxes. These calculations rely on microphysical equations, which are sensitive to the details of the local environmental conditions. Here we use a microphysical model to show that there exists a threshold wind speed beyond which the net sea spray‐mediated enthalpy and momentum fluxes are well‐approximated by using the net sea spray mass flux alone. This result supports the hypothesis that at extreme wind speeds, the ratio of the air‐sea exchange coefficients becomes independent of wind speed, implying the air‐sea flux calculations can be substantially simplified. 

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