Scientists investigating the interaction between the ocean and the
atmosphere now believe that the drag coefficient, and the coefficients
of heat transfer and moisture transfer at the sea surface, all increase
with an intensification of the wind, reaching high values during a
storm. This belief is based on the results of gradient and eddy
correlation measurements in the air layer over the water, as weIl as on
data concerning the effect of storms on the structure of the upper layer
of the ocean and on the planetary atmospheric boundary layer. However,
until recently it was impossible to explain just how the above
coefficients depend on the wind velocity and to extrapolate this
dependence into the region of hurricane velocities. Only by studying
nonturbulent mechanisms of transfer, which play an important role dose
to the surface of a stormy sea, and mechanisms of spray- mediated
transfer in particular, was it possible to proceed to a solution of this
problem. This book presents the results of laboratory and field studies
of the spray field in the air layer above the surface of a stormy sea.
Since there is a dose correlation between the generation of spray and
the breaking of wind waves, considerable attention is given to the
analysis of data on the sea state during a storm. Su'ch data are of
interest when solving a number of diverse theoretical and applied
problems.