Wave-Induced Effect on the Reynolds Shear Stress and Heat Flux in the Marine Surface Layer

Abstract

The influence of surface waves on the Reynolds shear stress and the heat flux, measured in the atmospheric surface layer ?5 m above the ocean, is discussed using the method of Lu and Willmarth (1973). During the observational period, the phase velocity C associated with the dominant wave frequency is 33?80 times larger than the friction velocity u*. When contributions to the momentum flux ?uw are sorted out into the four quadrants of the (u,w) plane, the contribution from the interaction quadrants (u>0, w>0; u<0, w<0) increases as C/u* increases. The contributions to the heat flux are not appreciably affected by C/u*. While the probability that sweep and ejection quadrants associated with instantaneous shear-stress and heat-flux fluctuations occur at the same time is large and approximately independent of C/u*, the probability of simultaneous occurrence of interaction events increases as C/u* increases. The period between ejection events also increases with C/u*.