Wind turbulence over misaligned surface waves and air-sea momentum flux. Part II: Waves in oblique wind

The coupled dynamics of turbulent airflow and a spectrum of waves are known to modify air-sea momentum and scalar fluxes. Waves traveling at oblique angles to the wind are common in the open ocean, and their effects may be especially relevant when constraining fluxes in storm and tropical cyclone conditions. In this study, we employ large eddy simulation for airflow over steep, strongly forced waves following and opposing oblique wind to elucidate its impacts on the wind speed magnitude and direction, drag coefficient, and wave growth/decay rate. We find that oblique wind maintains a signature of airflow separation while introducing a cross-wave component strongly modified by the waves. The directions of mean wind speed and mean wind shear vary significantly with height and are misaligned from the wind stress direction particularly toward the surface. As the oblique angle increases, the wave form drag remains positive but the wave impact on the equivalent surface roughness (drag coefficient) rapidly decreases and becomes negative at large angles. Therefore, our findings have significant implications for how the sea-state dependent drag coefficient is parameterized in forecast models. Our results also suggest that wind speed and wind stress measurements performed on a wave-following platform can be strongly contaminated by the platform motion if the instrument is inside the wave boundary layer of dominant waves.

Surface gravity wave effects on submesoscale currents in the open ocean

A set of realistic coastal simulations in California allows for the exploration of surface gravity wave effects on currents (WEC) in an active submesoscale current regime. We use a new method that takes into account the full surface gravity wave spectrum and produces larger Stokes drift than the monochromatic peak-wave approximation. We investigate two high wave events lasting several days — one from a remotely generated swell and another associated with local wind-generated waves — and perform a systematic comparison between solutions with and without WEC at two submesoscale-resolving horizontal grid resolutions (dx = 270 m and 100 m). WEC results in the enhancement of open-ocean surface density and velocity gradients when the averaged significant wave height HS is relatively large (> 4.2m). For smaller waves, WEC is a minor effect overall. For the remote swell (strong waves and weak winds), WEC maintains submesoscale structures and accentuates the cyclonic vorticity and horizontal convergence skewness of submesoscale fronts and filaments. The vertical enstrophy ζ2 budget in cyclonic regions (ζ/f > 2) reveals enhanced vertical shear and enstrophy production via vortex tilting and stretching. Wind-forced waves also enhance surface gradients, up to the point where they generate a small-submesoscale roll-cell pattern with high vorticity and divergence that extends vertically through the entire mixed layer. The emergence of these roll-cells results in a buoyancy gradient sink near the surface that causes a modest reduction in the typically large submesoscale density gradients.

Synthesis of Vortex Rossby Waves. Part III: Rossby Waveguides, Vortex Motion, and the Analogy with Middle-Latitude Cyclones

Vortex Rossby Waves (VRWs) affect Tropical Cyclones’ (TCs’) motion, structure, and intensity. They propagate within annular waveguides defined by a passband between Ω1D, the Doppler-shifted frequency of a one-dimensional VRW, and zero. Wavenumber-1 VRWs cause TC motion directly and have wider waveguides than wavenumbers ≥ 2. VRWs forced with fixed rotation frequency propagate away from the forcing. Initially outward-propagating waves are Doppler shifted to zero at a critical radius, where they are absorbed. Initially inward-propagating waves are Doppler-shifted to Ω1D, reflect from a turning point, propagate outward, and are ultimately absorbed at the critical radius. Between the forcing and the turning radii, the VRWs have standing-wave structure; outward from the forcing they are trailing spirals. They carry angular momentum fluxes that act to accelerate the mean flow at the forcing radius and decelerate it at the critical radius.Mean flow vorticity monopoles are inconsistent with Stokes Theorem on a spherical Earth, because a contour enclosing the monopole’s antipode would have nonzero circulation but would enclose zero vorticity.The Rossby waveguide paradigm also fits synoptic-scale Rossby Waves in a meridionally sheared zonal flow. These waves propagate within a waveguide confined between a poleward turning latitude and an equatorward critical latitude. Forced waves are comma-shaped gyres that resemble observed frontal cyclones, with trailing filaments equatorward of the forcing latitude and standing waves poleward. Even neutral forced Rossby waves converge westerly momentum at the latitude of forcing.

Forced solitary waves over complex topography

<p>In present paper we consider the problem on solitary waves forced by a chain of gently sloped obstacles of small height. Steady two-dimensional free-surface flows over a complex topography are studied analytically in the case when the far upstream flow is slightly supercritical. Small height- and steepness restrictions are important here since these circumstances provide the balance between nonlinear dispersion and hydraulic effects both affecting nearly hydrostatic non-uniform flow. Fully non-linear irrotational Euler equations are formulated via the von Mises transformation that parametrizes the family of streamlines in a curvilinear flow domain. It is well known that the critical value of the Froude number is the bifurcation point providing non-uniqueness of stationary flow. In present work, we construct and analyze approximate solitary-wave solutions by using long-wave expansion procedure with two small parameters.  In addition, we apply the Lyapunov - Schmidt method which ensures an analytical condition of the wave-trapping formulated in terms of the Melnikov function. A specific class of multi-bumped topographies is considered in order to demonstrate multiplicity of forced waves. The amount of different wave regimes depends on the number of bumps and pits, as well as on their location and size in relation to each other.</p>