Dynamics of Winds and Currents Coupled to Surface Waves
Top Cited Papers
- 1 January 2010
- journal article
- Published by Annual Reviews in Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics
- Vol. 42 (1), 19-42
- https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-fluid-121108-145541
Abstract
We discuss the coupling processes between surface gravity waves and adjacent winds and currents in turbulent boundary layers. These processes mediate exchanges of momentum, heat, and gases between the atmosphere and ocean and thus are of global significance for climate. Surface waves grow primarily by pressure-form stress from airflow over the waveforms, and they dissipate in the open sea by wave breaking that injects and stirs momentum, energy, and bubbles into the ocean. Wave motions pump wind eddies that control fluxes across the lower atmosphere. Flow separation occurs behind steep wave crests, and at high winds the crests flatten into spume, which diminishes the drag coefficient. In the ocean the Lagrangian-mean wave velocity, Stokes drift, induces a vortex force and material transport. These generate Langmuir circulations penetrating throughout the boundary layer and enhancing entrainment at the stratified interior interface in combination with other turbulent eddies and inertial-shear instability.Keywords
This publication has 112 references indexed in Scilit:
- Air Flow Structure Over Short-gravity Breaking Water WavesBoundary-Layer Meteorology, 2007
- On the limiting aerodynamic roughness of the ocean in very strong windsGeophysical Research Letters, 2004
- Wind Stress Vector over Ocean WavesJournal of Physical Oceanography, 2003
- Bubble Clouds and Langmuir Circulation: Observations and ModelsJournal of Physical Oceanography, 2003
- New evidence for enhanced ocean primary production triggered by tropical cycloneGeophysical Research Letters, 2003
- Langmuir circulations beneath growing or decaying surface wavesJournal of Fluid Mechanics, 2002
- On the distortion of turbulence by a progressive surface waveJournal of Fluid Mechanics, 2002
- A case study of air‐sea interaction during swell conditionsJournal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 1999
- Modeling the Oceanic General CirculationAnnual Review of Fluid Mechanics, 1996
- Oceanic vertical mixing: A review and a model with a nonlocal boundary layer parameterizationReviews of Geophysics, 1994