Surface gravity waves play an important role in the lower layer of the atmosphere and the upper layer of the ocean. Surface waves effect upper‐ocean mixing mainly through four processes: wave breaking, Stokes drift interaction with the Coriolis force, Langmuir circulation, and stirring by nonbreaking waves. We introduce the impact of these four processes into a 1‐D k−ϵ ocean turbulence model. The parameterizations used are based mainly on existing investigations. Comparison of simulation results and measurements demonstrates that considering all the effects of waves, rather than just one effect, significantly improves model performance. The nonbreaking‐wave‐induced mixing and Langmuir turbulence are the most important terms when considering the impact of waves on upper‐ocean mixing. Under high‐wave conditions, the turbulent mixing induced by nonbreaking waves can be of the same order of magnitude as the viscosity induced by other terms at the surface. Nonbreaking waves contribute very little to shear production and their impact is negligible in the models. Sensitivity experiments demonstrate that the vertical profile of the Stokes drift calculated from the 2‐D wave spectrum improves model performance significantly compared with other methods of introducing wave effects.
A high-resolution coupled ocean-wave-atmosphere model (Uppsala University Coupled model, UU-CM) of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea with improved representation of ocean-wave-atmosphere interaction processes is presented. In the UU-CM model, the stress on the air-sea interface is estimated as a balance of four stress terms, that is, the air-side stress, ocean-side stress, wave-supported stress (absorption of momentum by the wave field), and the momentum flux from waves to currents (breaking waves). The vector differences between these four stress terms are considered in the coupled system. The turbulent kinetic energy flux induced by wave breaking, the Stokes-Coriolis force and the Stokes drift material advection terms are added to the ocean circulation model component. Based on two-month-long (January and July) simulations, we find that the ocean-wave-atmosphere coupling has a significant influence on coastal areas. The coupled system captures the influence of surface currents and local systems such as coastal upwelling and their impact on the atmosphere. The wave-current interaction enhances the upper ocean mixing and reduces the sea surface temperature in July significantly. However, the pattern of the wave-current processes influences on the ocean current and waves are complex due to the stress differences in both magnitude and direction.
Traditional atmosphere, ocean and wave models are run independently of each other. This means that the energy and momentum fluxes do not fully account for the impact of the oceanic wave field at the air-sea interface. In this study, the Stokes drift impact on mass and tracer advection, the Stokes-Coriolis forcing and, the sea-state-dependent momentum and energy fluxes are introduced into an ocean circulation model and tested for a domain covering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. Sensitivity experiments are designed to investigate the influence on the simulation of storms and Baltic Sea upwelling. Inclusion of wave effects improves the model performance compared with the stand-alone circulation model in terms of sea level height, temperature and circulation. The direct sea-state-dependent momentum and turbulent kinetic energy fluxes prove to be of higher importance than the Stokes drift related effects investigated in this study (i.e., Stokes-Coriolis forcing and Stokes drift advection on tracers and on mass). The latter affects the mass and tracer advection but largely balances the influence of the Stokes-Coriolis forcing. The upwelling frequency changes by more than 10% along the Swedish coast when wave effects are included. In general, the strong (weak) upwelling probability is reduced (increased) when adding the wave effects. From the results, we
In situ measurements representing the marine atmosphere and air-sea interaction are taken at ships, buoys, stationary moorings and land-based towers, where each observation platform has structural restrictions. Air-sea fluxes are often small, and due to the limitations of the sensors, several corrections are applied. Land-based towers are convenient for long-term observations, but one critical aspect is the representativeness of marine conditions. Hence, a careful analysis of the sites and the data is necessary. Based on the concept of flux footprint, we suggest defining flux data from land-based marine micrometeorological sites in categories depending on the type of land influence: 1. CAT1: Marine data representing open sea, 2. CAT2: Disturbed wave field resulting in physical properties different from open sea conditions and heterogeneity of water properties in the footprint region, and 3. CAT3: Mixed land-sea footprint, very heterogeneous conditions and possible active carbon production/consumption. Characterization of data would be beneficial for combined analyses using several sites in coastal and marginal seas and evaluation/comparison of properties and dynamics. Aerosol fluxes are a useful contribution to characterizing a marine micrometeorological field station; for most conditions, they change sign between land and sea sectors. Measured fluxes from the land-based marine station € Ostergarnsholm are used as an example of a land-based marine site to evaluate the categories and to present an example of differences between open sea and coastal conditions. At the € Ostergarnsholm site the surface drag is larger for CAT2 and CAT3 than for CAT1 when wind speed is below 10 m/s. The heat and humidity fluxes show a distinctive distinguished seasonal cycle; latent heat flux is larger for CAT2 and CAT3 compared to CAT1. The flux of carbon dioxide is large from the coastal and land-sea sectors, showing a large seasonal cycle and significant variability (compared to the open sea sector). Aerosol fluxes are partly dominated by sea spray emissions comparable to those observed at other open sea conditions.
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