An empirical investigation of source term balance of small scale surface waves

Abstract

Phillips [1984] presents a method to derive the dissipation function (D) of the wave action density conservation equation from the functional dependence of the wave saturation spectrum (B) on wind friction velocity. The method is applied to field spectra of small scale waves (wavelengths between 0.02 and 6 m). The results indicate that D approaches asymptotically to B3 toward long gravity waves and to B2.3 for short gravity waves. In the middle wavelength range (0.16 to 2.1 m), the dependence is as strong as B10. This may suggest that the spectral property of wave breaking is localized in the wavenumber space, with strong signature in the 0.16 to 2.1 m wavelength scale.