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Physics

Bubble collisions underwater may create tiny droplets in sea spray

We have long struggled to explain why sea spray contains so many tiny water droplets – now, experiments suggest the droplets may be created underwater when bubbles collide and merge

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

9 November 2023

waves in the ocean

Sea spray can help seed clouds

somavarapu madhavi/Shutterstock

Very tiny droplets in sea spray can have a big impact on the atmosphere by helping seed clouds – and there is now a new way to explain how they form in such large numbers.

Researchers have long known that sea spray droplets less than a micrometre across – known as submicron drops – are created in large numbers by roiling seas, but they haven’t been able to explain how or why.

Xiaofei Wang at Fudan University in China and his colleagues have discovered that the answer…

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