Sea surface gravity wave-wind interaction in the marine atmospheric boundary layer

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the turbulence structure over idealized wind-generated surface gravity waves with varying wave age using a wave-modified one-dimensional boundary layer model. To prescribe the shape of the water wave and the associated orbital velocities, we employ an empirical expression for the wave energy spectrum without assigning a prognostic equation for modelling wave evolution under the action of wind. The key element in this model is the the work done by the wave-induced momentum flux on the atmosphere in the presence of waves. This is incorporated into the airflow using an exponential decay function. Finally, we conduct a series of numerical experiments to identify wav..