A global wave parameter database for wave-current-turbulence interaction studies

Nicolas Rascle (1) , Fabrice Ardhuin (1) , Pierre Queffeulou (2) , Denis Croizé-Fillon (2)

1 HOM - Division Hydrographie Océanographie et Météorologie Militaire
2 LOS - Laboratoire d'Océanographie Spatiale

Ocean surface mixing and drift are functions of the surface Stokes drift, Uss, volume Stokes transport Ts, a wave breaking height scale Hswg, and the flux of energy from waves to ocean turbulent kinetic energy Phi_oc. Here we describe a global database of these parameters, estimated from a well-validated numerical wave model, that covers the years 2003 to 2007. Compared to previous studies, the present work has the advantage of being consistent with the known physical processes that regulate the wave field and the air-sea fluxes, and also consistent with a very large number of observations of wave parameters using in situ measurements and satellite remote sensing. Our estimates may differ significantly from previous estimates. In particular we find that the global TKE flux Phi_oc is 68 TW and the mean Stokes volume transport, is typically 10 to 30% of the Ekman transport. We also have refined our previous estimates of the surface Stokes drift Uss by using a better treatment of the high frequency part of the wave spectrum. In the open ocean, Uss ~ 0.014 U10, where U10 is the wind speed at 10m height. The actual wave-induced drift is probably slightly larger due to the effect of breaking waves, which was neglected here.

Mots clés: surface gravity waves; air-sea fluxes; surface drift; ocean mixing

Domaines: Physique Atmosphérique et Océanique [physics.ao-ph]

Nicolas Rascle, Fabrice Ardhuin, Pierre Queffeulou, Denis Croizé-Fillon. A global wave parameter database for wave-current-turbulence interaction studies. 2007. ⟨hal-00201380⟩