Pressure-slope momentum transfer in ocean surface boundary layers coupled with gravity waves

Abstract

The paper focuses on the consequences of including surface and subsurface, wind-forced pressure-slope momentumtransfer into the oceanic water column, a transfer process that competes with now-conventional turbulence transfer based on mixing coefficients. Horizontal homogeneity is stipulated as is customary when introducing a new surface boundary layer model or significantly new vertical momentum transfer physics to an existing model. An introduction to pressure-slope momentum transfer is first provided by a phase-resolved, vertically dependent analytical model that excludes turbulence transfer. There follows a discussion of phase averaging; an appendix is an important adjunct to the discussion. Finally, a coupled wave-circulation model, which includes pressure-slope and turbulence momentum transfer, is presented and numerically executed. The calculated temperatures compare well with measurements from ocean weather station Papa. © 2013 American Meteorological Society.