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SEA SALT AEROSOL PRODUCTION: MECHANISMS, METHODS, MEASUREMENTS, AND MODELS: A CRITICAL REVIEW Ernie R. Lewis and Stephen E. Schwartz, 2004, 413 pp., $90.00, hardbound, American Geophysical Union, ISBN 0-87S90-417-3
The impetus behind Sea Salt Aerosol Production was the authors' desire to accurately represent the production flux of sea salt aerosol (SSA) particles as a function of particle size and controlling factors in chemical transport models used to examine the influence of aerosols on climate. In their research to develop the size-dependent production flux, they concluded that "SSA production is far less well understood than is indicated by much of the modeling community and indeed than appears to be appreciated by some investigators, who may be familiar with only a portion of the relevant literature." In response to the alleged misunderstanding among researchers studying SSA, and the generally acknowledged large uncertainties associated with SSA production fluxes, the authors produced a comprehensive review of all aspects of SSA relevant to its production. Topics covered include methods for determining size-dependent SSA production fluxes (e.g., steady state dry deposition method, white-cap method, micrometeorological methods, along-wind flux method), measurements and models of the parameters required for estimating SSA production fluxes (e.g., SSA concentrations, drops from bursting bubbles, oceanic whitecaps, dry deposition), and, finally, an evaluation of current estimates of SSA production fluxes. The level of discussion ranges from the fundamental (descriptions of different representations of aerosol size distributions, mechanisms of SSA transport and removal from the marine boundary layer, drop formation from bubble bursting) to detailed technical reviews of reported results from field measurements (SSA production from coastal sites, size distributions of bubble concentration in the ocean, whitecap coverage).
Throughout the review, data from many different sources for a given variable are plotted on the same graph for an easy visual comparison of the degree of agreement between different...