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Effect of viscosity on admixture horizontal diffusion in the wind-wave field

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Abstract

In the problem of admixture diffusion on the sea surface in the presence of wind waves, it has been indicated that the flow potential character is disturbed when viscosity in the wind-wave velocity field is taken into account. Modeling indicates that this allows a liquid particle to pass from one wave into another wave, as a result of which diffusion is maintained on the water surface. A distance between adjacent liquid particles increases in time, which is also evidence of diffusion. Observational data coincide with calculations if viscosity about turbulent, i.e., several cm2 s−1, is introduced. The study was performed because liquid particles do not go beyond a wave (i.e., diffusion is formally impossible) in the classical potential theory of sea waves.

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Correspondence to G. S. Golitsyn.

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Original Russian Text © G.S. Golitsyn, O.G. Chkhetiani, 2014, published in Izvestiya AN. Fizika Atmosfery i Okeana, 2014, Vol. 50, No. 6, pp. 623–629.

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Golitsyn, G.S., Chkhetiani, O.G. Effect of viscosity on admixture horizontal diffusion in the wind-wave field. Izv. Atmos. Ocean. Phys. 50, 547–553 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001433814060085

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001433814060085

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