The effect of rain on air-water gas exchange

David T. Ho; Larry F. Bliven; Rik Wanninkhof; Peter Schlosser

doi:10.3402/tellusb.v49i2.15957

The effect of rain on air-water gas exchange

Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology

Volume 49 (1997): Issue 2

By: David T. Ho, Larry F. Bliven, Rik Wanninkhof and Peter Schlosser

Open Access

|Jan 1997

Abstract

The relationship between gas transfer velocity and rain rate was investigated at NASA’s Rain-Sea Interaction Facility (RSIF) using several SF₆ evasion experiments. During each experiment, a water tank below the rain simulator was supersaturated with SF₆, a synthetic gas, and the gas transfer velocities were calculated from the measured decrease in SF6 concentration with time. The results from experiments with 18 different rain rates (7 to 110 mm h^-1) and 1 of 2 dropsizes (2.8 or 4.2 mm diameter) confirm a significant and systematic enhancement of air-water gas exchange by rainfall. The gas transfer velocities derived from our experiment were related to the kinetic energy flux calculated from the rain rate and dropsize. The relationship obtained for mono-dropsize rain at the RSIF was extrapolated to natural rain using the kinetic energy flux of natural rain calculated from the Marshall-Palmer raindrop size distribution. Results of laboratory experiments at RSIF were compared to field observations made during a tropical rainstorm in Miami, Florida and show good agreement between laboratory and field data.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3402/tellusb.v49i2.15957 | Journal eISSN: 1600-0889

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Language: English

Page range: 149 - 158

Submitted on: Sep 23, 1996

Accepted on: Dec 9, 1996

Published on: Jan 1, 1997

Published by: Stockholm University Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

© 1997 David T. Ho, Larry F. Bliven, Rik Wanninkhof, Peter Schlosser, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 49 (1997): Issue 2