Zhou Shengqian, Salter Matthew, Bertram Timothy, Brito Azevedo Eduardo, Reis Francisco, Wang Jian
Center for Aerosol Science and Engineering, Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
Department of Environmental Science, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Sci Adv. 2025 Aug 29;11(35):eadw0343. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adw0343. Epub 2025 Aug 27.
Sea spray aerosol (SSA) emission is a major source of atmospheric aerosols, influencing global climate and coastal air quality. Much of our knowledge about SSA derives from coastal observations near shorelines, but whether and when these observations accurately represent open oceans remain unclear. Here, we show that strong nearshore SSA production during high-wave periods greatly enhances downwind cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and aerosol mass concentrations. Strong shoreline wave breaking is widespread globally, and swell waves, which are decoupled from local winds, play a dominant role in many coastal regions. Therefore, extrapolating results based on coastal measurements to open oceans may significantly overestimate SSA concentration and its contribution to CCN and, by extension, the impact of SSA on clouds and climate. Additionally, the strong enhancement of coastal aerosol population by shoreline wave breaking and its environmental impact on coastal communities cannot be captured by current regional models, which do not parameterize nearshore SSA generation using wave energy or completely neglect it.
海喷雾气溶胶（SSA）排放是大气气溶胶的主要来源，影响着全球气候和沿海空气质量。我们对SSA的许多了解都来自近岸海岸线附近的观测，但这些观测是否以及何时能准确代表公海仍不清楚。在这里，我们表明，在高浪期强烈的近岸SSA产生会极大地增强顺风方向的云凝结核（CCN）和气溶胶质量浓度。强烈的海岸线波浪破碎在全球范围内广泛存在，与当地风解耦的涌浪在许多沿海地区起主导作用。因此，将基于沿海测量的结果外推到公海可能会显著高估SSA浓度及其对CCN的贡献，进而高估SSA对云和气候的影响。此外，当前的区域模型无法捕捉到海岸线波浪破碎对沿海气溶胶数量的强烈增强及其对沿海社区的环境影响，这些模型没有使用波浪能量对近岸SSA生成进行参数化，或者完全忽略了它。
