Wind turbulence over misaligned surface waves and air-sea momentum flux. Part I: Waves following and opposing wind

Air-sea momentum and scalar fluxes are strongly influenced by the coupling dynamics between turbulent winds and a spectrum of waves. Because direct field observations are difficult, particularly in high winds, many modeling and laboratory studies have aimed to elucidate the impacts of the sea state and other surface wave features on momentum and energy fluxes between wind and waves as well as on the mean wind profile and drag coefficient. Opposing wind is common under transient winds, for example, under tropical cyclones, but few studies have examined its impacts on air-sea fluxes. In this study, we employ a large-eddy simulation for wind blowing over steep sinusoidal waves of varying phase speeds, both following and opposing wind, to investigate impacts on the mean wind profile, drag coefficient, and wave growth/decay rates. The airflow dynamics and impacts rapidly change as the wave age increases for waves following wind. However, there is a rather smooth transition from the slowest waves following wind to the fastest waves opposing wind, with gradual enhancement of a flow perturbation identified by a strong vorticity layer detached from the crest despite the absence of apparent airflow separation. The vorticity layer appears to increase the effective surface roughness and wave form drag (wave attenuation rate) substantially for faster waves opposing wind.

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Related Dataset #1 : JPO_2021_Wind_turbulence_over_misaligned_surface_waves_and_air-sea_momentum_flux

Related Dissertation #1 : Theory of turbulent wind over fast and slow waves

Related Service #1 : Cheyenne: SGI ICE XA Cluster

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Author Husain, N. T.
Hara, T.
Sullivan, Peter P.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2022-01-01T00:00:00
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2025-07-11T16:08:13.663849
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:25433
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Husain, N. T., Hara, T., Sullivan, Peter P.. (2022). Wind turbulence over misaligned surface waves and air-sea momentum flux. Part I: Waves following and opposing wind. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7bk1h31. Accessed 16 August 2025.

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