A model for the wind-driven current in the wavy oceanic surface layer: apparent friction velocity reduction and roughness length enhancement

TL;DR

This paper presents an analytical model for wind-driven ocean surface currents that accounts for wave effects, showing how surface waves influence friction velocity and roughness length, with validation against laboratory data.

Contribution

The model incorporates vortex forces and turbulence closure to explain wave-induced modifications in surface current profiles, advancing understanding of wave-current interactions in oceanography.

Findings

Friction velocity is reduced at low Langmuir numbers due to wave effects.

Surface roughness length is enhanced by non-breaking waves.

Model predictions align well with laboratory measurements.

Abstract

A simple analytical model is developed for the current induced by the wind and modified by surface wind-waves in the oceanic surface layer, based on a first-order turbulence closure and including the effect of a vortex force representing the Stokes drift of the waves. The shear stress is partitioned between a component due to shear in the current, which is reduced at low turbulent Langmuir number ($La_t$), and a wave-induced component, which decays over a depth proportional to the dominant wavelength. The model reproduces the apparent reduction of the friction velocity and enhancement of the roughness length estimated from current profiles, detected in a number of studies. These effects are predicted to intensify as $La_t$ decreases, and are entirely attributed to non-breaking surface waves. The current profile becomes flatter for low $La_t$ owing to a smaller fraction of the total shear stress being supported by the current shear. Comparisons of the model with the comprehensive dataset provided by the laboratory experiments of Cheung and Street show encouraging agreement, with the current speed decreasing as the wind speed increases (corresponding to decreasing $La_t$), if the model is adjusted to reflect the effects of a full wave spectrum on the intensity and depth of penetration of the wave-induced stress. A version of the model where the shear stress decreases to zero over a depth consistent with the measurements accurately predicts the surface current speed. These results contribute towards developing physically-based momentum flux parameterizations for the wave-affected boundary layer in ocean circulation models.