<p>The wind shear stress at the ocean surface drives momentum exchange across the air-sea interface regulating atmospheric and oceanic phenomena. Theoretically, the mean wind stress acts in a reference frame moving with the ocean surface; however, the relative motion between the air and ocean surface layers is conventionally neglected in bulk transfer formulae. Recent developments improving air-sea momentum flux quantification advocate for explicitly defining the air-sea relative wind, especially in the regime of low wind forcing, where surface currents may approach a significant fraction of the total wind speed. Yet, in practice, this new approach is typically applied using opportunistic definitions of the near-surface current. Here, we build on this recent work and propose a general framework for the bulk air-sea momentum flux that directly accounts for vertical current shear and surface waves in quantifying the stress at the interface. Our approach partitions the stress at the interface into viscous skin and (wave) form drag components, each applied to their relevant surface advections, which are quantified using the inertial motions within the sub-surface log layer and the modulation of waves by currents predicted by linear theory, respectively. The efficacy of this approach is demonstrated using an extensive oceanic dataset from the Coastal Endurance Array (Ocean Observatories Initiative) offshore of Newport, Oregon (2017–2023) that includes co-located measurements of direct covariance wind stress, directional wave spectra, and current profiles. As expected, our framework does not alter the overall dependence of momentum flux on mean wind forcing, and we found the largest impacts at relatively low wind speeds. Below 3 m s<InlineEquation ID="IEq1"> <EquationSource Format="TEX">\(^{-1}\)</EquationSource> </InlineEquation>, accounting for sub-surface shear reduced form drag variation by 40–50% as compared to a current-agnostic approach; as compared to a shear-free current, i.e., slab ocean, a 35% reduction in form drag variation was found. At this wind forcing, neglecting the currents led to systematically overestimating the form stress by 20 to 50%—an effect that could not be captured by using the slab ocean approach. This framework builds on the existing understanding of wind-wave-current interaction, yielding a novel formulation that explicitly accounts for the role of current shear and surface waves in air-sea momentum flux. This work holds significant implications for air-sea coupled modeling in general conditions.</p>

Accounting for Ocean Waves and Current Shear in Wind Stress Parameterization

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2025年8月21日

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David G. Ortiz-Suslow,
Nathan Laxague,
Jan-Victor Björkqvist,
Milan Curcic

摘要

The wind shear stress at the ocean surface drives momentum exchange across the air-sea interface regulating atmospheric and oceanic phenomena. Theoretically, the mean wind stress acts in a reference frame moving with the ocean surface; however, the relative motion between the air and ocean surface layers is conventionally neglected in bulk transfer formulae. Recent developments improving air-sea momentum flux quantification advocate for explicitly defining the air-sea relative wind, especially in the regime of low wind forcing, where surface currents may approach a significant fraction of the total wind speed. Yet, in practice, this new approach is typically applied using opportunistic definitions of the near-surface current. Here, we build on this recent work and propose a general framework for the bulk air-sea momentum flux that directly accounts for vertical current shear and surface waves in quantifying the stress at the interface. Our approach partitions the stress at the interface into viscous skin and (wave) form drag components, each applied to their relevant surface advections, which are quantified using the inertial motions within the sub-surface log layer and the modulation of waves by currents predicted by linear theory, respectively. The efficacy of this approach is demonstrated using an extensive oceanic dataset from the Coastal Endurance Array (Ocean Observatories Initiative) offshore of Newport, Oregon (2017–2023) that includes co-located measurements of direct covariance wind stress, directional wave spectra, and current profiles. As expected, our framework does not alter the overall dependence of momentum flux on mean wind forcing, and we found the largest impacts at relatively low wind speeds. Below 3 m s \(^{-1}\) , accounting for sub-surface shear reduced form drag variation by 40–50% as compared to a current-agnostic approach; as compared to a shear-free current, i.e., slab ocean, a 35% reduction in form drag variation was found. At this wind forcing, neglecting the currents led to systematically overestimating the form stress by 20 to 50%—an effect that could not be captured by using the slab ocean approach. This framework builds on the existing understanding of wind-wave-current interaction, yielding a novel formulation that explicitly accounts for the role of current shear and surface waves in air-sea momentum flux. This work holds significant implications for air-sea coupled modeling in general conditions.