Whitecap Fraction Parameterization and Understanding with Deep Neural Network

Abstract

Accurate calculation of the whitecap fraction is of great importance for the estimation of air-sea momentum flux, heat flux and sea-salt aerosol flux in Earth system models. Past whitecap fraction parameterizations were mostly power functions of wind speed, lacking consideration of other factors, while the single wind speed dependence makes it difficult to explain the variability of the whitecap fraction. In this work, we constructed a novel multivariate whitecap fraction parameterization using a deep neural network, which is diagnosed and interpreted. Compared with a recent developed parameterization by Albert and coworkers, the new parameterization can reduce the computational error of the whitecap fraction by about 15%, and it can better characterize the variability of the whitecap fraction, which provides a reference for the uncertainty study of sea-salt aerosol estimation. Through a permutation test, we ranked the importance of different input variables and revealed the indispensable role of variables such as significant wave height, sea surface temperature, etc., in the whitecap fraction parameterization.