Measurements of whitecaps from ocean color and linkages to subsurface physics

Breaking waves enhance the transport of gas, momentum and heat between the atmosphere and ocean, facilitating climate-relevant physical and chemical processes. But years of effort have proven that breaking waves are difficult to measure, to describe analytically and parameterize using forcing. Because breaking waves have a marked impact on the color of the surface ocean, altering the magnitude and spectral shape of reflected light in unique ways for the submerged air cavity, fresh and decaying foam and entrained bubbles, measurements of ocean color could prove useful as a proxy for the processes associated with wave breaking. Here, for an amalgam of datasets, an ocean color derived intensity metric is related to the surface and subsurface manifestation of wave breaking, including the enhancement in TKE dissipation rates and the penetration depth of bubble plumes. While preliminary in nature, the whitecap statistics from ocean color measurements presented here demonstrate the potential use of ocean color as an accurate, practicable approach, given the high sensitivity and low detection limit of the radiometers, to measure upper ocean physics.