Impact of Surface Waves on Wind Stress under Low to Moderate Wind Conditions

Abstract

AbstractThe impact of ocean surface waves on wind stress at the air–sea interface under low to moderate wind conditions was systematically investigated based on a simple constant flux model and flux measurements obtained from two coastal towers in the East China Sea and South China Sea. It is first revealed that the swell-induced perturbations can reach a height of nearly 30 m above the mean sea surface, and these perturbations disturb the overlying airflow under low wind and strong swell conditions. The wind profiles severely depart from the classical logarithmic profiles, and the deviations increase with the peak wave phase speeds. At wind speeds of less than 4 m s−1, an upward momentum transfer from the wave to the atmosphere is predicted, which is consistent with previous studies. A comparison between the observations and model indicates that the wind stress calculated by the model is largely consistent with the observational wind stress when considering the effects of surface waves, which provides a solution for accurately calculating wind stress in ocean and climate models. Furthermore, the surface waves at the air–sea interface invalidate the traditional Monin–Obukhov similarity theory (MOST), and this invalidity decreases as observational height increases.