Wave-Coherent Airflow and Critical Layers over Ocean Waves

Abstract

Abstract An analysis of coherent measurements of winds and waves from data collected during the Office of Naval Research (ONR) High-Resolution air–sea interaction (HiRes) program, from the Floating Instrument Platform (R/P FLIP), off the coast of northern California in June 2010 is presented. A suite of wind and wave measuring systems was deployed to resolve the modulation of the marine atmospheric boundary layer by waves. Spectral analysis of the data provided the wave-induced components of the wind velocity for various wind–wave conditions. The power spectral density, the amplitude, and the phase (relative to the waves) of these wave-induced components are computed and bin averaged over spectral wave age c/U(z) or c/u*, where c is the linear phase speed of the waves, U(z) is the mean wind speed measured at the height z of the anemometer, and u* is the friction velocity in the air. Results are qualitatively consistent with the critical layer theory of Miles. Across the critical height zc, defined such that U(zc) = c, the wave-induced vertical and horizontal velocities change significantly in both amplitude and phase. The measured wave-induced momentum flux shows that, for growing waves, less than 10% of the momentum flux at z ≈ 10 m is supported by waves longer than approximately 15 m. For older sea states, these waves are able to generate upward wave-induced momentum flux opposed to the overall downward momentum flux. The measured amplitude of this upward wave-induced momentum flux was up to 20% of the value of the total wind stress when Cp/u* > 60, where Cp is the phase speed at the peak of the wave spectrum.