High Wind Upper Ocean Mixing with Explicit Surface Wave Processes

Abstract

The work described here supports the Office of Naval Research Departmental Research Initiative (DRI) for research on the "Impact of Typhoons on the Western Pacific Ocean" (ITOP). The theme of the DRI is to better characterize and predict the ocean boundary layer (OBL) and its impact on typhoon (hurricane) evolution. This is one component of developing improved prediction models for the coupled atmosphere-ocean-wave system. Cooling of the sea surface temperature (SST) is a critical coupling variable influencing atmosphere-ocean hurricane dynamics; SST is largely determined by OBL turbulence, surface wave processes, and mixed layer entrainment. Our research goal is to model the strongly forced wind and wave driven upper OBL using turbulence resolving large-eddy simulation (LES) with explicit wave effects, viz., wave-current interactions and breaking waves and examine their impact on ocean mixing during hurricane events.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA527345

Entities

People

  • James C. McWilliams
  • Peter P Sullivan

Organizations

  • National Center for Atmospheric Research

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Atmospheric Sciences
  • Boundaries
  • Boundary Layer
  • Entrainment
  • Equations
  • Flow Fields
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Fluid Mechanics
  • High Resolution
  • Hurricanes
  • Layers
  • Sea Surface Temperature
  • Simulations
  • Surface Temperature
  • Surface Waves
  • Turbulence
  • Waves

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers