ACTIVITIES IN, AND PRELIMINARY
RESEARCH AT I.M.S.T.
RESULTS OF, AIR-SEA INTERACTIONS
1. INTRODU~ION
Continuing interest in air-sea interactions appears to be largely justified
by their dominating influence upon our atmospheric and oceanic environment, as well as by the varied and basic scientific problems they raise. These
interactions are, at all scales, mainly ruled by turbulent transfer processes,
while they, themselves, are one of the essential agents in the generation of the
mean and turbulent motions in the atmosphere and the oceans. This is
especially true for the air and water layers near the interface, where smallscale momentum, heat, and mass transfers are intimately linked and establish the conditions for turbulent mixing and diffusion of natural and artificial
pollutants.
Small-scale. air-sea interactions have been mainly studied, these last
years. through field experiments and semiempirical theories, laboratory
work being generally restricted to the wave generation problem (see e.g.,
Pond, 1971). The basic idea underlying our research is to complement fullscale field work by laboratory experiments executed under controlled
conditions, so that extensive, repeatable investigations can be performed
wherein individual parameters can be studied separately.
The success of this approach obviously depends on the degree to which
the natural processes can be usefully modelled in the laboratory facility.
Preliminary studies have led to the conclusion that a partial simulation of
the air-sea exchange processes could be obtained provided that a sufficiently
large facility could be built. A 60 m overall long micrometeorological windwater tunnel has been designed for that purpose, tested on a one-fifth scale
model, then constructed and fitted with the various equipment necessary for
controlling experimental conditions, for performing appropriate measurements, and for acquiring and processing of the scientific data. Most of that
work has been already reported (Coantic et al., 1969; Coantic and Favre,
1971) and will be only reviewed here.
39 I
RESEARCH AT I.M.S.T.
RESULTS OF, AIR-SEA INTERACTIONS
1. INTRODU~ION
Continuing interest in air-sea interactions appears to be largely justified
by their dominating influence upon our atmospheric and oceanic environment, as well as by the varied and basic scientific problems they raise. These
interactions are, at all scales, mainly ruled by turbulent transfer processes,
while they, themselves, are one of the essential agents in the generation of the
mean and turbulent motions in the atmosphere and the oceans. This is
especially true for the air and water layers near the interface, where smallscale momentum, heat, and mass transfers are intimately linked and establish the conditions for turbulent mixing and diffusion of natural and artificial
pollutants.
Small-scale. air-sea interactions have been mainly studied, these last
years. through field experiments and semiempirical theories, laboratory
work being generally restricted to the wave generation problem (see e.g.,
Pond, 1971). The basic idea underlying our research is to complement fullscale field work by laboratory experiments executed under controlled
conditions, so that extensive, repeatable investigations can be performed
wherein individual parameters can be studied separately.
The success of this approach obviously depends on the degree to which
the natural processes can be usefully modelled in the laboratory facility.
Preliminary studies have led to the conclusion that a partial simulation of
the air-sea exchange processes could be obtained provided that a sufficiently
large facility could be built. A 60 m overall long micrometeorological windwater tunnel has been designed for that purpose, tested on a one-fifth scale
model, then constructed and fitted with the various equipment necessary for
controlling experimental conditions, for performing appropriate measurements, and for acquiring and processing of the scientific data. Most of that
work has been already reported (Coantic et al., 1969; Coantic and Favre,
1971) and will be only reviewed here.
39 I