Abstract
Rainfall effects on wind waves and turbulence are investigated through the laboratory experiments in a large wind-wave tank. It is found that the wind waves are damped as a whole at low wind speeds, but are enhanced at high wind speeds. This dual effect of rain on the wind waves increases with the increase of rain rate, while the influence of rainfall-area length is not observable. At the low wind speed, the corresponding turbulence in terms of the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation rate is significantly enhanced by rainfall as the waves are damped severely. At the high wind speed, the augment of the TKE dissipation rate is suppressed while the wind waves are enhanced simultaneously. In the field, however, rainfall usually hinders the development of waves. In order to explain this contradiction of rainfall effect on waves, a possibility about energy transfer from turbulence to waves in case of the spectral peak of waves overlapping the inertial subrange of turbulence is assumed. It can be applied to interpret the damping phenomenon of gas transfer velocity in the laboratory experiments, and the variation of the TKE dissipation rates near sea surface compared with the law of wall.
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Foundation item: The National Basic Research Program of China under contract Nos 2009CB421201 and 2005CB422301; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract Nos 41076007, 40676014, 40490263 and 40830959.
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Zhao, D., Ma, X., Liu, B. et al. Rainfall effect on wind waves and the turbulence beneath air-sea interface. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 32, 10–20 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-013-0372-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-013-0372-7