An experimental study of liquid column breakup lengths and turbulent primary breakup properties at the surface of turbulent round liquid jets in still air at standard temperature and pressure is described. Jet exit conditions were limited to non-cavitating water and ethanol flows, long length/diameter ratio (greater than 40:1) constant-diameter round injector passages, jet exit Reynolds numbers of 5000-200,000, jet exit Weber numbers of 235-270,000 and liquid/gas density ratios of 690 and 860, at conditions where direct effects of viscosity were small (e.g., liquid jet Ohnesorge numbers were smaller than 0.0053). Three liquid column breakup modes were observed, as follows: a weakly turbulent Rayleigh-like breakup mode observed at small jet exit Weber and Reynolds numbers, a turbulent breakup mode observed at moderate jet exit Weber numbers, and an aerodynamic bag/shear breakup mode observed at large jet Weber numbers. The turbulent primary liquid column breakup mode was associated with conditions where drop diameters resulting from turbulent primary breakup along the liquid surface were comparable to the diameter of the liquid column itself. The bag/shear liquid column breakup mode was observed when liquid turbulence caused large deformations of the liquid column so that portions of it were in a gaseous cross flow; this resulted in bag or shear liquid column breakup, very similar to the breakup of non-turbulent liquid jets in gaseous cross flow. Mean streamwise drop velocities after breakup were comparable to mean streamwise velocities within the jet whereas mean cross stream drop velocities after breakup were comparable to cross stream velocity fluctuations within the liquid. Rates of primary breakup at the liquid surface are reported as surface efficiency factors (the fraction of the maximum possible cross stream drop liquid flux at the surface based on the mean relative cross stream velocity of the drops at the surface and the liquid density). The resulting surface efficiency factors varied from small values near the onset of liquid surface breakup to values of the order of unity as conditions near breakup of the liquid column as a whole were approached. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.