Abstract
This study aims to evaluate previous parameterizations of whitecap coverage (W) based on in-situ observational datasets. Ten-meter wind speed measurements over the sea surface (U10) have been the most traditional and effective method of estimating W. A secondary variable—sea surface temperature (Tw)—is considered for better parameterization of W. A non-monotonic relationship is found between the W and Tw because all the coefficients and exponent in the W-U10 power-law fit are Tw-dependent. Therefore, replacing the fixed slope variable of the power-law fit with the positively or negatively Tw-dependent function does not result in significant improvements. When the Tw-dependent coefficients and exponent are embedded in the W parameterization, a better estimation of W is obtained. Tw related parameter of wind-sea Reynolds number contains wavefield information, which is also related to Tw, making wind-sea Reynolds number an optional parameter for estimating W. We suggest that further improvement of W (U10, Tw) parameterization requires consideration of more wavefield information.
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Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for Hebei Province Universities (KY2021012), and Hebei Agricultural University Research Project for Talented Scholars (YJ201835), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, (N182303031). The efforts of the researchers who obtained and published the data adopted in this study as well as their funding organizations are much appreciated.
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Liu, M., Yang, B. Evaluation of Sea Surface Temperature-Dependent Whitecap Coverage Parameterizations Using In Situ Data. Ocean Sci. J. 57, 174–185 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12601-022-00060-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12601-022-00060-4