Effects of wave-induced sea ice break-up and mixing in a high-resolution coupled ice-ocean model

Arctic sea ice plays a vital role in modulating the global climate. In the most recent decades, the rapid decline of the Arctic summer sea ice cover has exposed increasing areas of ice-free ocean, with sufficient fetch for waves to develop. This has highlighted the complex and not well-understood nature of wave-ice interactions, requiring modeling effort. Here, we introduce two independent parameterizations in a high-resolution coupled ice-ocean model to investigate the effects of wave-induced sea ice break-up (through albedo change) and mixing on the Arctic sea ice simulation. Our results show that wave-induced sea ice break-up leads to increases in sea ice concentration and thickness in the Bering Sea, the Baffin Sea and the Barents Sea during the ice growth season, but accelerates the sea ice melt in the Chukchi Sea and the East Siberian Sea in summer. Further, wave-induced mixing can decelerate the sea ice formation in winter and the sea ice melt in summer by exchanging the heat fluxes between the surface and subsurface layer. As our baseline model underestimates sea ice cover in winter and produces more sea ice in summer, wave-induced sea ice break-up plays a positive role in improving the sea ice simulation. This study provides two independent parameterizations to directly include the wave effects into the sea ice models, with important implications for the future sea ice model development

A recent increase in global wave power as a consequence of oceanic warming

Wind-generated ocean waves drive important coastal processes that determine flooding and erosion. Ocean warming has been one factor affecting waves globally. Most studies have focused on studying parameters such as wave heights, but a systematic, global and long-term signal of climate change in global wave behavior remains undetermined. Here we show that the global wave power, which is the transport of the energy transferred from the wind into sea-surface motion, has increased globally (0.4% per year) and by ocean basins since 1948. We also find long-term correlations and statistical dependency with sea surface temperatures, globally and by ocean sub-basins, particularly between the tropical Atlantic temperatures and the wave power in high south latitudes, the most energetic region globally. Results indicate the upper-ocean warming, a consequence of anthropogenic global warming, is changing the global wave climate, making waves stronger. This identifies wave power as a potentially valuable climate change indicator.Funding for this project was partly provided by RISKOADAPT (BIA2017-89401-R) Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and the ECLISEA project part of the Horizon 2020 ERANET ERA4CS (European Research Area for Climate Services) 2016 Call

Parameterization of wave boundary layer

It is known that drag coefficient varies in broad limits depending on wind velocity and wave age as well as on wave spectrum and some other parameters. All those effects produce large scatter of the drag coefficient, so, the data is plotted as a function of wind velocity forming a cloud of points with no distinct regularities. Such uncertainty can be overcome by the implementation of the WBL model instead of the calculations of drag with different formulas. The paper is devoted to the formulation of theWave Boundary Layer (WBL) model for the parameterization of the ocean-atmosphere interactions in coupled ocean-atmosphere models and wave prediction models. The equations explicitly take into account the vertical flux of momentum generated by the wave-produced fluctuations of pressure, velocity and stresses (WPMF). Their surface values are calculated with the use of the spectral beta-functions whose expression was obtained by means of the 2-D simulation of the WBL. Hence, the model directly connects the properties of the WBL with an arbitrary wave spectrum. The spectral and direct wave modeling should also take into account the momentum flux to a subgrid part of the spectrum. The parameterization of this effect in the present paper is formulated in terms of wind and cut-off frequency of the spectrum

FIELD OBSERVATION SITE FOR AIR-SEA INTERACTIONS IN TROPICAL CYCLONES

Accurate predictions of winds, waves and currents within extreme tropical cyclones are critical for shipping, offshore oil and gas, ports and harbours, coastal erosion, tourism and fishing. The paper will describe a unique field observation programme intended to gather in situ data about air-sea interactions in tropical cyclones. The site has been established on the Woodside-operated North Rankin Complex, an offshore gas production facility located off the north-west coast of Western Australia. The facility is multi-purpose. It will assist Woodside to manage platform operations during the cyclone season and to make advances in the estimate of extreme wave crest heights for platform loading while enabling academic researchers to measure air-sea interactions. Concurrent measurements are conducted in the atmospheric boundary layer, on the ocean surface and below the surface all the way to the bottom at 120 m depth. The measurements include fluxes of momentum and energy across the air-sea interface, spray production, directional wave spectra up to high wavenumbers, and will allow us to close the balance of the air-sea exchanges for the first time in extreme field conditions

Journal of New Zealand literature : JNZL

The response of a wind-sea spectrum to sudden changes in wind directions of 180° and 90° is investigated. Numerical simulations using the third-generation wave spectral model SWAN have been undertaken at micro timescales of 30 s and fine spatial resolution of less than 10 m. The results have been validated against the wave data collected during the field campaign at Lake George, Australia. The newly implemented 'ST6' physics in the SWAN model has been evaluated using a selection of bottom-friction terms and the two available functions for the nonlinear energy transfer: (1) exact solution of the nonlinear term (XNL), and (2) discrete interactions approximation (DIA) that parameterizes the nonlinear term. Good agreement of the modelled data is demonstrated directly with the field data and through the known experimental growth curves obtained from the extensive Lake George data set.The modelling results show that of the various combinations of models tested, the ST6/XNL model provides the most reliable computations of integral and spectral wave parameters. When the winds and waves are opposing (180° wind turn), the XNL is nearly twice as fast in the aligning the young wind-sea with the new wind direction than the DIA. In this case, the young wind-sea gradually decouples from the old waves and forms a new secondary peak. Unlike the 180° wind turn, there is no decoupling in the 90° wind turn and the entire spectrum rotates smoothly in the new direction. In both cases, the young wind-sea starts developing in the new wind direction within 10 min of the wind turn for the ST6 while the directional response of the default physics lags behind with a response time that is nearly double of ST6.The modelling results highlight the differences in source term balance among the different models in SWAN. During high wind speeds, the default settings provide a larger contribution from the bottom-friction dissipation than the whitecapping. In contrast, the whitecapping dissipation is dominant in ST6 while the bottom-friction generated by the new model with ripple formation provides a significant contribution during strong winds only. During low wind speeds and non-breaking wave conditions, a separate swell or nonbreaking dissipation source term continues the decay of waves that cannot be dissipated by the whitecapping dissipation function