Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Surfzone sensible heat flux (<jats:italic>H</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>S</jats:italic>,SZ</jats:sub>) obtained through direct eddy-covariance estimates was measured at four different sandy beach sites along Monterey Bay, California. The <jats:italic>H</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>S</jats:italic>,SZ</jats:sub> source region is estimated from a footprint probability distribution function (pdf) model and is only considered when at least 70% of the footprint pdf occupies the surfzone. The measured <jats:italic>H</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>S</jats:italic>,SZ</jats:sub> is 2 times the modeled interfacial sensible heat (<jats:italic>H</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>S</jats:italic>,int</jats:sub>) using COARE3.5. A formulation for estimating sensible heat flux from spray droplets (<jats:italic>H</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>S</jats:italic>,spray</jats:sub>) generated during depth-limited wave breaking is developed. The sea-spray generation function for droplet radii ranging over 0.1 < <jats:italic>r</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>o</jats:italic></jats:sub> < 1000 <jats:italic>μ</jats:italic>m is based on self-similar spectra of spray droplets measured from the surfzone forced by the average depth-limited breaking wave dissipation across the surfzone. However, it is shown that the size of the spume droplets that contribute to <jats:italic>H</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>S</jats:italic>,spray</jats:sub> is limited owing to the relatively short residence time in air as the droplets fall to the sea surface during wave breaking. The addition of the surfzone-modeled <jats:italic>H</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>S</jats:italic>,spray</jats:sub> to the COARE3.5 <jats:italic>H</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>S</jats:italic>,int</jats:sub> gives values similar to the observed surfzone <jats:italic>H</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>S</jats:italic>,SZ</jats:sub>, highlighting the importance of depth-limited wave-breaking processes to sensible heat flux. Measured <jats:italic>H</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>S</jats:italic>,SZ</jats:sub> values are an order of magnitude larger than simultaneous open ocean observations.</jats:p>