Study on whitecapping dissipation process for wave modelling during tropical cyclones

Abstract

The atmosphere-wave interaction is an important physical process during tropical cyclones. Understanding and modelling of this process are of great significance for the technical and functional design of coastal and harbor structures. At the high wind velocities of tropical cyclones, foams and sprays that are blown away from the sea form a slip layer between the atmosphere and the sea surface. This slip layer makes the atmosphere-wave interaction exhibit different characteristics compared with that at low wind velocities. The significant effect of this layer on the atmosphere is the reduction of aero-dynamical surface roughness, which has been used to improve the expression of the drag coefficient. On this basis, the effect of the slip layer on the sea surface is further explored in this study. The whitecap coverage may reach a low limit at high wind velocities, and a modified numerical method of whitcapping dissipation for the wave spectrum model is proposed based on the classic field observations of whitecaps. According to these observations, when developing waves appear, the variation characteristics of whitecap coverage are different from those of developed waves with low wind velocities. Thus, the critical friction velocity of wave states should be defined, which can be expressed by the threshold steepness of developed waves due to the negative correlation between wave age and wave steepness. The dissipation mode is then modified to gradually reach the limit with the increase of friction velocities, which is validated during 24 tropical cyclones measured with 26 buoys. The negative Bias of the default mode generally decreases with the increase of friction velocity, even reaching −0.8 m, while the Bias of the modified mode is mostly maintained between 0.2 m and −0.2 m.