An inconvenient sea truth: spread, steepness, and skewness of surface slopes
In: Carlson, C.A.; Giovannoni, S.J. (Ed.) (2009). Ann. Rev. Mar. Sci. 1. Annual Review of Marine Science, 1. Annual Reviews: Palo Alto. ISBN 978-0-8243-4501-3. 466 pp., more In: Annual Review of Marine Science. Annual Reviews: Palo Alto, Calif. ISSN 1941-1405; e-ISSN 1941-0611, more |  |
| Keywords | Elastic waves > Seismic waves > Microseisms
Forces (mechanics) > Stress (mechanics) > Wind stress
Water waves > Surface water waves > Capillary waves
Marine/Coastal | | Author keywords | capillary waves; wind stress; ship waves; microseisms |
| Abstract | Breon and Henriot (BH) have collected eight million globally distributed satellite images of sunglitter, which yield a few simple, robust rules about the statistics of surface slopes: 1) constant angular spread, 2) linear steepness, and 3) sigmoid (near stepwise) skewness (all with respect to wind speed). Yet die information is sparse because it says nothing about time and space scales. The BH rules are an inconvenient sea truth, too fundamental to be ignored, too incomplete to be understood. With regard to BH rule 1 (BH:1), I suggest that the constant spread is associated with a wake-like geometry of the short gravities. Steepness linearity (BH:2) remains an enigma. Skewness (BH:3) appears to be correlated with a rather sudden onset of breaking for winds above 4 in s(-1) do not think that skewness comes from parasitic capillaries. These are tentative conclusions; I look forward to intensive sea-going experiments over the next few years demolishing the proposed interpretations. |
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