The air‐sea gas transfer velocity k is frequently estimated as an empirical function of wind speed. However, it is widely recognized that k depends on processes other than wind speed alone. The small‐eddy model, which describes periodic events of small eddies disturbing the sea surface with water from below, suggests a direct relation between k and the dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy ϵ at the air‐sea interface. This relation has been proven both in laboratories and in the field in various freshwater and coastal environments, but to date has not been verified in open ocean conditions. Here, concurrent North Atlantic field observations of ϵ and eddy covariance measurements of DMS and CO2 air‐sea gas flux are presented. Using ϵ measurements, we compare the small‐eddy model at various depths to previously published observations. Extrapolating the measured ϵ profiles to the thickness of the viscous sublayer allows us to formulate a function of k that depends solely on the water side friction velocity u∗w, which can be inferred from direct eddy covariance measurements of the air‐side friction velocity u∗a. These field observations are generally consistent with the theoretical small‐eddy model. Utilizing a variable Schmidt number exponent in the model, rather than a constant value of 12 yields improved agreement between model and observations.

Direct observations of the dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy, ϵ, under open ocean conditions are limited. Consequently, our understanding of what chiefly controls dissipation in the open ocean, and its functional form with depth, is poorly constrained. In this study, we report direct open ocean measurements of ϵ from the Air‐Sea Interaction Profiler (ASIP) collected during five different cruises in the Atlantic Ocean. We then combine these data with ocean‐atmosphere flux measurements and wave information in order to evaluate existing turbulence scaling theories under a diverse set of open ocean conditions. Our results do not support the presence of a “breaking” or a “transition layer,” which has been previously suggested. Instead, ϵ decays as |z|−1.29 over the depth interval, which was previously defined as “transition layer,” and as |z|−1.15 over the mixing layer. This depth dependency does not significantly vary between nonbreaking or breaking wave conditions. A scaling relationship based on the friction velocity, the wave age, and the significant wave height describes the observations best for daytime conditions. For conditions during which convection is important, it is necessary to take buoyancy forcing into account.

Rainfall induces a vertical salinity gradient directly below the ocean surface, the strength and lifetime of which depend on the size of the rain event, the availability of mixing, and the air‐sea heat fluxes. The presence of rain in turn influences the near‐surface turbulent mixing and air‐sea exchange processes. During a campaign in the midlatitude North Atlantic, the Air‐Sea Interaction Profiler (ASIP) was used to investigate changes in the vertical distribution of salinity (S), temperature (T), and turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate (ϵ) caused by four rain events. During one of the rain events a strong shallow stratification was formed. The buoyancy effect of this freshwater lens changes the dominant wind‐driven turbulent mixing. The surface momentum flux was limited to a shallow layer, and below it ϵ is reduced by 2 orders of magnitude. For a different rain event of higher‐peak rain rate, the salinity anomaly is smaller and is dispersed deeper into the water column. The difference in ocean response shows that the upper ocean is sensitive to changes in the atmospheric forcing associated with the rain events. The observed salinity anomalies as a function of rain rate and wind speed are compared to relationships from studies with the 1‐D turbulence model GOTM and satellite validation. The observations suggest that the vertical salinity anomaly is best described as a function of total rain. A higher‐resolution prognostic model for sea surface salinity and temperature is shown to perform well in predicting the observed S and T anomalies.

Inland freshwater bodies form the largest natural source of carbon to the atmosphere. To study this contribution to the atmospheric carbon cycle, eddy-covariance flux measurements at lake sites have become increasingly popular. The eddy-covariance method is derived for solely local processes from the surface (lake). Non-local processes, such as entrainment or advection, would add erroneous contributions to the eddy-covariance flux estimations. Here, we use four years of eddy-covariance measurements of carbon dioxide from Lake Erken, a freshwater lake in mid-Sweden. When the lake is covered with ice, unexpected lake fluxes were still observed. A statistical approach using only surface-layer data reveals that non-local processes produce these erroneous fluxes. The occurrence and strength of non-local processes depend on a combination of wind speed and distance between the instrumented tower and upwind shore (fetch), which we here define as the time over water. The greater the wind speed and the shorter the fetch, the higher the contribution of non-local processes to the eddy-covariance fluxes. A correction approach for the measured scalar fluxes due to the non-local processes is proposed and also applied to open-water time periods. The gas transfer velocity determined from the corrected fluxes is close to commonly used wind-speed based parametrizations.