Winds near the surface of waves: Observations and modeling

AV Babanin; J McConochie; D Chalikov

Journal article

Winds near the surface of waves: Observations and modeling

AV Babanin, J McConochie, D Chalikov

Journal of Physical Oceanography | AMER METEOROLOGICAL SOC | Published : 2018

DOI: 10.1175/JPO-D-17-0009.1

Abstract

The concept of a constant-flux layer is usually employed for vertical profiling of the wind measured at some elevation near the ocean surface. The surface waves, however, modify the balance of turbulent stresses very near the surface, and therefore such extrapolations can introduce significant biases. This is particularly true for buoy measurements in extreme conditions, when the anemometer mast is within the wave boundary layer (WBL) or even below the wave crests. In this paper, field data and a WBL model are used to investigate such biases. It is shown that near the surface the turbulent stresses are less than those obtained by extrapolation using the logarithmic-layer assumption, and the ..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Alexander Babanin Author

Dmitry Chalikov Author

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Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

AVB acknowledges ARC Discovery Grant DP170101328 and DISI Australia-China Centre through Grant ACSRF48199, and Woodside Energy, Ltd., through an industry grant. The results of section 3 were obtained in the framework of the state assignment of FASO Russia (Theme 0149-2018-0014).