Variation of Short-Scale Waves in the Shoaling Zone
Abstract
Long-Term Goals: Goals are to provide measurements of short-scale sea surface roughness in the shoaling wave zone, determine the correlation between this short-scale slope variance and surface wind stress, and finally suggest the ramifications to microwave remote sensing near the coast. Objectives: Primary objective during SHOWEX is to define and understand the characteristics of near-vertical incidence millimeter-wave radar backscatter from wind waves over the surf zone and how it differs from wave scattering observed over the open ocean. Our approach utilizes aircraft radar and wind measurements collected from the NOAA Long-EZ. Observed radar information relates directly to an integration of the sea surface spectrum over wave scales from swell down to 1 cm but with heavy weighting towards cm-scale gravity capillary waves. These small wavelets are directly forced by the local wind. We have also demonstrated a new technique for measuring the slopes of the intermediate scale gravity waves using a three laser ranging system aboard the aircraft. Thus our studies have expanded to addressing the correlation between intermediate and short scale wave characteristics and the atmospheric turbulence data collected using the LongEZ. This work falls under the Shoaling Waves Research Initiative (SHOWEX) with Jielun Sun being the primary group leader.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 30, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA626432
Entities
People
- Douglas Vandemark
Organizations
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration