Relationship between wave steepness and wave age in the course of wind wave growth

It is traditionally assumed that the relationship between wave steepness and wave age is inde- pendent of the wind wave growth state. In fact, the traditional relationship can not describe the whole course of wind wave growth. This paper assumes that the relationship between wave steepness and wave age changes with the variety of dimensionless fetch. Based on the relationship proposed by Hou and Wen (1990), a new relation- ship in the course of wind wave growth is revealed. Comparisons between the present study and other previous relationships show that this new relationship explains better the observations than the other existing relationships. In the case of small fetch, wave age value increases more quickly than other models while it is in opposition to that in the case of large fetch. The result in present paper can clearly reflect the whole course of wind wave growth, it is an improvement for traditional results.Key words: wave steepness, wave age, relationship between wave steepness and wave age

A relationship between wave steepness and wave age for wind waves in deep water

Studying the relationship between wave steepness and wave age is important for describing wind wave growth with energy balance equation of significant waves. After invoking the dispersion rela- tion of surface gravity wave in deep water, a new relationship between wave steepness and wave age is revealed based on the “3/2-power law” (Toba, 1972), in which wave steepness is a function of wave age with a drag coefficient as a parameter. With a given wave age, a larger drag coefficient would lead to larger wave steepness. This could be interpreted as the result of interaction between wind and waves. Comparing with previous relationships, the newly proposed one is more consistent with observational data in field and laboratory.

Parameterization of Wave Breaking Probability and Whitecap Coverage

The model for whitecap coverage and wave breaking probability are parameterized by the dimensionless wind fetch X^-. This paper aims at replacing X^- with other parameters such as the average wave period T^-, wind speed U10 or wave age ξ in order to improve the suitability and convenience of the model for application. First, W and B are expressed in terms of T^- and U10, which are relatively easy to measure in the field. Further, U10 is replaced with the friction velocity U. by use of the empirical relationship. As wave age has been widely used to parameterize spectral models of ocean waves and air-sea fluxes, W and B are then expressed as a simple function of wave age, respectively. The new forms of the model obtained are W= 1 - Ф（3.02ξ0＂76） and B = exp（ - 4.54ξ^1.52） . The two forms are mere applicable in pracrice, since ξ is relatively easy to measure or determine from wave and wind records. Comparisons between these expressions and data collected from published literature are made and agreement is fairly good.

Analysis of the Global Swell Distributions Using ECMWF Re-Analyses Wind Wave Data

The existence of three well-defined tongue-shaped zones of swell dominance,termed as 'swell pools',in the Pacific,the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans,was reported by Chen et al.(2002)using satellite data.In this paper,the ECMWF Re-analyses wind wave data,including wind speed,significant wave height,averaged wave period and direction,are applied to verify the existence of these swell pools.The swell indices calculated from wave height,wave age and correlation coefficient are used to identify swell events.The wave age swell index can be more appropriately related to physical processes compared to the other two swell indices.Based on the ECMWF data the swell pools in the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans are confirmed,but the expected swell pool in the Indian Ocean is not pronounced.The seasonal variations of global and hemispherical swell indices are investigated,and the argument that swells in the pools seemed to originate mostly from the winter hemisphere is supported by the seasonal variation of the averaged wave direction.The northward bending of the swell pools in the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans in summer is not revealed by the ECMWF data.The swell pool in the Indian Ocean and the summer northward bending of the swell pools in the Pacific and the Atlan-tic Oceans need to be further verified by other datasets.

The comparison of altimeter retrieval algorithms of the wind speed and the wave period

With the launch of altimeter,much effort has been made to develop algorithms on the wind speed and the wave period.By using a large data set of collocated altimeter and buoy measurements,the typical wind speed and wave period algorithms are validated.Based on theoretical argument and the concept of wave age,a semi-empirical algorithm for the wave period is also proposed,which has the wave-period dimension,and explicitly demonstrates the relationships between the wave period and the other variables.It is found that Ku and C band data should be applied simultaneously in order to improve either wind speed or wave period algorithms.The dual-band algorithms proposed by Chen et al.(2002) for the wind speed and Quilfen et al.(2004) for the wave period perform best in terms of a root mean square error in the practical applications.

Rainfall effect on wind waves and the turbulence beneath air-sea interface

Rainfall effects on wind waves and turbulence are investigated through the laboratory experiments in a large wind-wave tank. It is found that the wind waves are damped as a whole at low wind speeds, but are enhanced at high wind speeds. This dual effect of rain on the wind waves increases with the increase of rain rate, while the influence of rainfall-area length is not observable. At the low wind speed, the corresponding turbulence in terms of the turbulent kinetic energy （TKE） dissipation rate is significantly enhanced by rain- fall as the waves are damped severely. At the high wind speed, the augment of the TKE dissipation rate is suppressed while the wind waves are enhanced simultaneously. In the field, however, rainfall usually hin- ders the development of waves. In order to explain this contradiction of rainfall effect on waves, a possibility about energy transfer from turbulence to waves in case of the spectral peak of waves overlapping the inertial subrange of turbulence is assumed. It can be applied to interpret the damping phenomenon of gas trans- fer velocity in the laboratory experiments, and the variation of the TKE dissipation rates near sea surface compared with the law of wall.

Directional Spectrum of Wind Waves: Part Ⅱ- Comparison and Confirmation

A model on the directional frequency spectrum of wind waves for deep water is introduced. The comparisons of the proposed model with other existing models show that the proposed model is very close to the JONSWAP model and DHH model for describing the developing waves under the normal spectral bandwidth, and has a better description for the transition of the unidirectional spectrum from ω -4 to ω -5 at a position around 3ω p, i.e., three time the peak frequency. Comparisons also show that the proposed model describes closely both field data measured by a four-frequency radar and a laser-optical sensor, and laboratory data measured by a laser slope gauge and an imaging optical method. The comparisons further demonstrate that the inverse spectral bandwidth as a new wave parameter is robust for describing the spectral steepness. Finally, the formula on the local spectral-peak angular frequency is confirmed using the observed two-dimensional spectra.

New Interpretation of Dependence of Wind Stress on Wave State

Based on observations from buoys, it is found that the wave age is well correlated with the nondimensional wave height, and this correlation is best described by a 3/5-power law. This similarity law is valid in the cases of wind waves as well as swells under natural sea states. On the basis of the 3/5-power law combined with the well-known 3/2-power law I it is shown that the wave-induced wind stress increases rapidly with wave age, indicating that the traditional observations or analytic techniques have only given the turbulent Reynolds stress induced by short wind waves, but excluded the long-wave-induced wind stress. The latter constitutes a small fraction to the total wind stress when the wave age is smaller than 1.0. The increase of sea-surface roughness with wave age can be attributed to wave breaking.

Analysis of Wave Directional Spreading by Bayesian Parameter Estimation

A spatial array of wave gauges installed on an observatoion platform has been designed and arranged to measure the local features of winter monsoon directional waves off Taishi coast of Taiwan. A new method, named the Bayesian Parameter Estimation Method(BPEM), is developed and adopted to determine the main direction and the directional spreading parameter of directional spectra. ne BPEM could be considered as a regression analysis to find the maximum joint probability of parameters, which best approximates the observed data from the Bayesian viewpoint. The result of the analysis of field wave data demonstrates the highly dependency of the characteristics of normalized directional spreading on the wave age. The Mitsuyasu type empirical formula of directional spectrum is therefore modified to be representative of monsoon wave field. Moreover, it is suggested that S-max could be expressed as a function of wave steepness. The values of S-max decrease with increasing steepness. Finally, a local directional spreading model, which is simple to be utilized in engineering practice, is proposed.

Directional Spectrum of Wind Waves: Part Ⅰ- Model and Derivation

A new model on the directional spectrum of wind waves for deep water is proposed based on the statistics of wind waves. This model contains three parameters: the wave age, the inverse spectral bandwidth and the local spectral-peak angular frequency. The inverse spectral bandwidth is a robust parameter for describing the spectral steepness of wind waves. Using the inverse spectral bandwidth parameter, the proposed model can well describe various observations obtained from the open ocean and laboratory tank.

The Influence of Sea Sprays on Drag Coefficient at High Wind Speed

Field and laboratory observations indicate that the variation of drag coefficient with wind speed at high winds is different from that under low-to-moderate winds.By taking the effects of wave development and sea spray into account,a new parameterization of drag coefficient applicable from low to extreme winds is proposed.It is shown that,under low-to-moderate wind conditions so that the sea spray effects could be neglected,the nondimensional aerodynamic roughness first increases and then decreases with the increasing wave age;whereas under high wind conditions,the drag coefficient decreases with the increasing wind speed due to the modification of the logarithmic wind profile by the effect of sea spray droplets produced by bursting bubbles or wind tearing breaking wave crests.The drag coefficients and sea surface aerodynamic roughnesses reach their maximum values vary under different wave developments.Correspondingly,the reduction of drag coefficient under high winds reduces the increasing rate of friction velocity with increasing wind speed.

NEW WIND WAVE GROWTH RELATIONS

In the present paper combining the relationship between wave steepness andwave age with the significant wave energy balance equation for wind wave, a new wind wave growthrelation is presented. Comparisons with the other existing wind wave growth relations show that theresults in present paper accord better with the wind wave growth process.