THE NEAR-SURFACE LAYER OF THE OCEAN
analysis of near-surface turbulence at different stages of surface wave
development are / S
z H and HNz/F 0 , where H s is the significant wave height,
and F 0 is the surface flux of TKE. Standard dimensional analysis then leads
to the following formula:
0
/
/
D
S
S
H F
z H
H
\
,
(3.26)
where D
\ is a universal function of dimensionless depth z/H S .
Figure 3-13. The vertical distribution of (a) nondimensional dissipation
3
/
z u
HN
as a
function of nondimensional depth
2
/
g z u according to measurements of Soloviev et al.
(1988) and Thorpe et al. (2003a); (b) data of Drennan et al. (1996) and Thorpe et al. (2003a)
in dimensionless coordinates
0
/
S
H F
H
and
/ S
z H . The field data shown here are for
developed seas. In order to reduce possible effects of stratification, only data obtained under
wave breaking conditions ( 10 6
U t m s
-1 ) are shown.
From the tower-based data collected in Lake Ontario under conditions of
developing seas, Terray et al. (1996) proposed the following
parameterization for the wave dissipation rate H wv based on scaling (3.26):
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