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Air–Sea Interaction in the Southern Ocean: Exploring the Height of the Wave Boundary Layer at the Air–Sea Interface

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Abstract

We investigate the momentum and energy exchange across the wave boundary layer (WBL). Directly at the air–sea interface, we test three wave-growth parametrizations by comparing estimates of the wave-induced momentum flux derived from wave spectra with direct covariance estimates of the momentum flux. An exponential decay is used to describe the vertical structure of the wave-induced momentum in the atmospheric WBL through use of a decay rate, a function of the dimensionless decay rate and wavenumber (A = α k). The decay rate is varied to minimize the difference between the energy extracted from the WBL and the energy flux computed from wave spectra using our preferred wave-growth parametrization. For wave ages (i.e. the peak phase speed to atmospheric friction velocity ratio) in the range \( 15 < c_{p}/u_{*} < 35 \) we are able to balance these two estimates to within 10%. The decay rate is used to approximate the WBL height as the height to which the wave-induced flux is 0.1 of its surface value and the WBL height determined this way is found to be between 1–3 m. Finally, we define an effective phase speed with which to parametrize the energy flux for comparison with earlier work, which we ultimately attempt to parametrize as a function of wind forcing.

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Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant 0647475, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under Grant NA07OAR4310084, and the NOAA Office of Climate Observations. Additional support was provided by the National Science Foundation (0647667; Christopher Zappa at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory). This is Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory contribution number 8219. Finally, we would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticism and helpful comments during the review process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06340, USA

    Alejandro Cifuentes-Lorenzen

  2. Applied Ocean Physics, and Engineering, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, 02543, USA

    James B. Edson

  3. Ocean and Climate Physics, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10964, USA

    Christopher J. Zappa

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  1. Alejandro Cifuentes-Lorenzen
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  2. James B. Edson
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  3. Christopher J. Zappa
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Correspondence to Alejandro Cifuentes-Lorenzen.

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Cifuentes-Lorenzen, A., Edson, J.B. & Zappa, C.J. Air–Sea Interaction in the Southern Ocean: Exploring the Height of the Wave Boundary Layer at the Air–Sea Interface. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 169, 461–482 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-018-0376-0

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