Airborne imagery of ocean mixed-layer convective patterns

Airborne infrared and synthetic aperture radar imagery collected over the Gulf Stream are used to examine the surface patterns of small-scale thermal convection and wind-driven Langmuir circulation. These patterns have a thermal contrast of ∼0.25 °C, which is roughly an order of magnitude larger than predicted by large-eddy simulations but consistent with the effect on surface temperature of surfactant accumulations induced by mixed-layer eddies.