Ocean‐Wave‐Atmosphere Interaction Processes in a Fully Coupled Modeling System

Abstract

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.

Impact of Air–Wave–Sea Coupling on the Simulation of Offshore Wind and Wave Energy Potentials

“…The fully coupled model, UU-CM (Uppsala University-Coupled model, [7]), is used in this study. The UU-CM includes the atmosphere, wave and ocean sub-component models.…”

“…The coupler, OASIS3-MCT [37], is used for the information exchange between the three sub-components. For detailed information of the system refer to [7]. In this section, only a summary of the system is given.…”

“…The energy potential of waves and wind is usually simulated by stand-alone models with the boundary forcing from external data sets [3][4][5][6], in which the two-way interaction processes between the atmosphere, wave, and ocean are neglected. However, many studies have shown that the Atmosphere-Wave-Ocean (AWO) interaction processes are essential for the wind and wave simulations [7].…”

“…The coupling processes are more important for the simulation of potential wind and wave energy since the coupling influence is more important with the increase of model resolution [23]. Many coupled modelling systems have been developed for studying the impacts of coupling processes on the atmosphere and ocean circulations, such as Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere-Waves-Sediment Transport (COAWST) [24,25], Uppsala University-Coupled Model (UU-CM) [7], ALADIN-POM-coupled model [26], the regional coupled prediction system UKC2 and UKC3 [27,28], etc. Those coupled systems have been applied for studying various atmospheric/oceanic systems.…”

Surface Gravity Waves and Their Role in Ocean‐Atmosphere Coupling in the Gulf of Mexico

“…This study is the first step toward better understanding and modeling of the coupling among atmosphere, wave, and ocean in the GoM. The coupled modeling of the three components of the earth system has recently been carried out in other regions such as the Gulf Stream (Shi & Bourassa, 2019) and the Baltic Sea (Wu et al, 2019). Those studies demonstrate that the coupling alters the simulated mean states of the three earth system components and the fluxes among them.…”