Abstract
Langmuir circulations are horizontal roll vortices in the mixed layers of lakes and oceans. Their axes lie along the wind direction, and the wind rows that they generate may have spacings from a few centimeters to 0(100 m). They affect air-water gas exchange processes by 1) an exchange of gas with deeper layers through episodic deepening of the mixed layer; 2) the convergence of surface films into wind rows, thus presenting a pattern of film-free and film-covered water surfaces; 3) the generation of turbulent mixing beneath film-covered areas that would otherwise be expected to have laminar flow; 4) the advective redistribution of turbulence just beneath the air-water interface; and 5) the vertical advection of bubbles from beaking waves.
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© 1984 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Faller, A.J., Perini, C. (1984). The Roles of Langmuir Circulations in Gas Transfer Across Natural Water Surfaces. In: Brutsaert, W., Jirka, G.H. (eds) Gas Transfer at Water Surfaces. Water Science and Technology Library, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1660-4_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1660-4_17
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