Sea spray as a function of low elevation wind speed

A raft-mounted photographic system was devised to sample large (radius >45 μ) spray droplets at an altitude of 13 cm above the sea surface. Aboard the same raft the wind was measured at an elevation of 47 cm and salt was collected at several elevations in the lowest 1.2 meters. The spray droplet concentration shows an abrupt increase as the wind increases from about 8.5 to about 9.5 m/sec. This result is consonant with the reported observations of ‘critical’ or ‘transition’ velocities in numerous other sea-surface and near-surface phenomena.