Jump to content

Draft:Stagnant Film Model

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The stagnant film model showing gas exchange between a mixed atmosphere and mixed ocean with a film in-between with thickness Z

The Stagnant Film Model is a kinematic model that helps explain how gas exchange from the ocean's surface and the atmosphere reaches equilibrium[1]. The model suggests that both the ocean and atmosphere are mostly composed of well-mixed, constantly moving fluid layers with a permanent thin-film layer in the middle, now known as the sea surface microlayer (SML). That thin layer of thickness Z is where gas exchange occurs between the two fluids.[2]

The SML is estimated to have a thickness between 1 and 1000 micrometers, varying across the globe[3]. For example, strong winds can shear the layer and decrease its thickness. The gas constituents of the film can also change depending on biological activity, such as plankton photosynthesis or respiration in the surface water, making it important to understand the model for gas exchanges including greenhouse gasses.[2]



References

[edit]
  1. ^ Murray, James W. "The oceans." Jacobson, MC Charlson, RJ; Rodhe, H.; Orians, GH Earth System Science: From Biogeochemical Cycles to Global Changes, Oxford, UK: Elsevier (2000): 230-278.
  2. ^ a b Crump, Byron C., Jeremy M. Testa, and Kenneth H. Dunton, eds. Estuarine ecology. John Wiley & Sons, 2022. 42-43.
  3. ^ Liss, P. S., & Duce, R. A. (1997). The sea surface and global change (p. 535).