Is Langmuir circulation driven by surface waves or surface cooling?

Abstract

A surface buoyancy forcing is added to the Craik-Leibovich model of Langmuir circulation. It is assumed that the convective cells have their axes aligned in the direction of the wind, as this is the preferred mode for the CL mechanism, and convective instability of a shear flow favors cells aligned in the wind direction but suppresses crosswind instability. It will be shown that wave forcing in the CL mechanism dominates over thermal convection in driving Langmuir circulation. -from Authors