New Interpretation of Dependence of Wind Stress on Wave State
摘要
Based on observations from buoys, it is found that the wave age is well correlated with the nondimensional wave height, and this correlation is best described by a 3/5-power law. This similarity law is valid in the cases of wind waves as well as swells under natural sea states. On the basis of the 3/5-power law combined with the well-known 3/2-power law, it is shown that the wave-induced wind stress increases rapidly with wave age, indicating that the traditional observations or analytic techniques have only given the turbulent Reynolds stress induced by short wind waves, but excluded the long-wave-induced wind stress. The latter constitutes a small fraction to the total wind stress when the wave age is smaller than 1.0. The increase of sea-surface roughness with wave age can be attributed to wave breaking.