Sea Spray: Complex chemistry with big effects on climate - Science Nation

Take in a deep breath of salty ocean air and more than likely, you're also breathing in naturally occurring sea spray aerosols. But, there's much more in each of those tiny bursting "bubbles" than salt. They're also bursting with ocean life, from bacteria to phytoplankton--even viruses. Because sea spray aerosols seed clouds, they affect the climate.

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), atmospheric chemist Kimberly Prather of the University of California, San Diego, and chemist Vicki Grassian of the University of Iowa are leading a team of scientists around the country who are working to better understand what role sea spray aerosols play in weather and climate change.

Prather says the single largest uncertainty in climate change is what we don't know about the effect of aerosols on clouds.

Prather and Grassian co-direct NSF's Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment, where chemists are recreating the ocean-atmosphere environment in the lab to study how chemical changes in seawater impact the composition and cloud forming ability of sea spray aerosols. Ultimately, the goal of researchers' experiments is to provide a more accurate representation of aerosol chemistry in computer climate models.

The research in this episode was funded by NSF award #1305427, Centers for Chemical Innovation (CCI) Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment.

Miles O'Brien, Science Nation Correspondent
Marsha Walton, Science Nation Producer

[amelias]

Can we technologically generate more sea spray to
"THE WARMING"

[boriskaragiannis.]

naming your video with a tittle same with the "operation sea spray" is very suspicious already

[demonorse]

Salt water is kinda nasty. I never had an ear infection until I swam in the ocean. Give me lake Superior anytime...