Improved description of air-sea momentum fluxes and upper ocean currents Kai Christensen (met.no), Gøran Brostrøm (met.no), Jan Erik Weber (UiO) OPNet 2009-05-28
Background Current OGCMs do not include ocean surface wave effects The waves alter the air-sea fluxes of momentum and turbulent kinetic energy The wave-induced currents are frequently of the same magnitude as the OGCM currents near the surface Several theoretical models for wave-mean flow interactions exist, some are more theoretical than others Numerical wave prediction models perform very well (partly because the waves are strongly correlated with the wind) We propose to use a numerical wave prediction model for handling all air-sea momentum and energy fluxes We, that is, met.no + IMR + UiO
Trajectories, surface - 70°13'N 12°57'E, 2009-05-19 + 60h forecast
Stokes drift?
QEQL coordinates
Kinematics: wave momentum/wave groups cg
ttot tc td + cg tc tvws + LOCAL FORCING vs ADVECTION BY GROUP tOGCM
Momentum equation + BC Eulerian mean momentum mean wave momentum (one wave component)
Summary Let wave model handle air-sea fluxes of momentum and energy OGCM momentum budget: additional body forces and changed surface stress OGCM energy budget: modified air-sea flux of turbulent kinetic energy Why? Improved description of upper ocean dynamics, relevant for e.g. oil spill drift models, bio-models (fish eggs/larvae, algae)