Dataset for: The air-sea interface and surface stress under tropical cyclones

We reproduced the final stage of Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) shear instability at the interface between fluids with large density differences in a laboratory experiment at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (UM RSMAS) Air-Sea Interaction Salt Water Tank (ASIST), coordinated with a Volume of Fluid Large Eddy Simulation. Shadow imaging was used to capture images in a small air-sea tank at ASIST at wind speed corresponding to U10 = 40 ms-1. The grey-scale images included in this dataset shows cases of fresh and salt water and the effect of surfactant. Color intensity can be used to distinguish liquid (black) and air (white).