Ocean Waves Breaking and Marine Aerosol Fluxes (eBook)

Stanislaw Massel is currently a professor and the Director of the Institute of Oceanology in Sopot Poland.

Preface 7
Contents 10
Chapter 1 Basic processes near the air–sea interface 16
1.1 Introduction 16
1.2 Sea water 17
1.3 The state of matter near the interface 20
Chapter 2 Mechanics of steep and breaking waves 25
2.1 Introduction 25
2.2 Theory of the almost-highest waves 26
2.3 Instabilities of uniform wave trains 30
2.4 Numerical modelling of steep waves and their evolution to breaking 37
Chapter 3 Spectral and statistical properties of ocean waves 44
3.1 Introduction 44
3.2 Spectral properties of ocean waves 45
3.3 Statistical properties of ocean waves 57
Chapter 4 Experimental insights into mechanisms of wave breaking 87
4.1 Introduction 87
4.2 Definitions of parameters of steep and breaking waves 88
4.3 Field observations on wave breaking 91
4.4 Laboratory experiments on wave breaking 99
4.5 Physical simulation of extreme ocean waves in large scale 117
4.6 Detection of breaking in a given wave record 120
4.7 Summary of experimental data 128
Chapter 5 Wave breaking criteria and probability of breaking 133
5.1 Introduction 133
5.2 Limiting wave steepness criterion 135
5.3 Limiting vertical acceleration criterion 140
5.4 Kinematic breaking criterion 161
5.5 Probability of wave breaking for modulated second- order Stokes waves 165
Chapter 6 Energy dissipation due to wave breaking 168
6.1 Introduction 168
6.2 Experiments on the rates of energy dissipation in breaking waves 169
6.3 Theoretical models of wave energy dissipation 175
6.4 Summary of formulae for wave energy dissipation 190
Chapter 7 Whitecap coverage of the sea surface 193
7.1 Introduction 193
7.2 Experimental data on whitecap coverage 194
7.3 Theoretical models of whitecap coverage 203
7.4 Summary of data and theoretical formulae on whitecap coverage 214
Chapter 8 Fundamentals of marine aerosols 217
8.1 Introduction 217
8.2 Bubble entrainment in breaking waves 218
8.3 Definitions of aerosol particle size, concentrations, fluxes and spray generation functions 220
8.4 Mechanisms of aerosol production 226
8.5 Remarks on influence of marine aerosols on climate 235
Chapter 9 Marine aerosol fluxes 239
9.1 General considerations 239
9.2 Methods of determining size-dependent sea spray generation functions 240
Chapter 10 Aerosol flux as a function of sea state parameters 257
10.1 Introduction 257
10.2 Governing relationships 258
10.3 Dependence of energy dissipation rate on sea state parameters 259
10.4 Dependence of whitecap coverage on sea state parameters 262
10.5 Dependence of aerosol flux on sea state parameters 263
10.6 Dimensional analysis of aerosol flux from the sea surface 267
10.7 Alternative representation of aerosol flux 268
Chapter 11 Seasonal dependence of aerosol fluxes in the Baltic Sea 271
11.1 Introduction 271
11.2 Wind field in the Baltic Sea 271
11.3 Wave climate in the Baltic Sea 273
11.4 Seasonal dependence of the aerosol budget over the Baltic Sea 274
Appendix A Amplitudes 281
Appendix B Wavelet transform 282
B.1 Introduction 282
B.2 Definition of wavelets 283
B.3 Time and frequency resolution in wavelets 284
B.4 Energy properties of wavelets 285
Appendix C Hilbert transform and instantaneous frequency 287
C.1 Definition of Hilbert transform 287
C.2 Digital computation of Hilbert transform 288
C.3 Stream function as a Hilbert transform of velocity potential 288
C.4 Instantaneous frequency 289
Appendix D Relationships between spectral moments and sea state parameters 291
D.1 Spectral moments as a function of non- dimensional wind fetch 291
D.2 Spectral moments as a function of significant wave height and peak frequency 293
References 294
Symbols and Notations 314
Author Index 319
Subject Index 325