Correction of data from a salt-spray contaminated temperature sensor

Sea salt spray contamination of a temperature sensor induces erroneous fluctuations due to the latent heat of evaporating or condensing water vapour associated with changes in humidity. A method is derived to correct this humidity sensitivity using data from a fast response humidiometer. When applied to aircraft measurements of turbulence in the mixed layer over the Coral Sea, spurious high frequency temperature variance is significantly corrected. Spatial separation of the thermometer and the humidiometer and the sampling rate limit the effectiveness of the method. The vertical profile of the structure function parameter C_T², determined from the corrected data, agrees well with results from other studies in a marine environment, but differences with measurements made over land remain.