Abstract
Rather simple general arguments lead one to conclude that at least a very large fraction of the momentum transfer from air into water must be in the form of wave generation. This is in agreement with some recent measurements. The theory of wave generation remains incomplete and it seems probable that more attention should be paid to three-dimensional motions.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Charnock, H.: 1955, Wind Stress on a Water Surface, Quart. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. 81, 639–642.
Dobson, F. W.: 1971, Measurements of Atmospheric Pressure of Wind-Generated Sea Waves, J. Fluid Mech. 48, 1,91–127.
Dorman, C. and Mollo-Christensen, E.: 1971, ‘Reynolds Stress and Buoyancy Fluctuations Caused by Moving Gust Patterns over the Sea Surface (Cat's Paws)’, Conf. on the Interaction of the Sea and the Atmosphere, Fort Lauderdale, December 1–3, 1971.
Eckart, C.: 1953, Generation of Wind Waves on a Water Surface, J. Appl. Phys. 24, 1453.
JONSWAP: 1973, see Barnett et al., 1973.
Kim, H. T., Kline, S. J., and Reynolds, W.,: 1971, Production of Turbulence near a Smooth Wall in a Turbulent Boundary Layer, J. Fluid Mech. 50, 133–160.
Miyake, M., Stewart, R. W., and Burling, R. W.: 1970, Spectra and Cospectra of Turbulence over Water, Quart. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. 95, 138–143.
Smith, S. D.: 1970, Thrust-Anemometer Measurements of Wind Turbulence, Reynold Stress and Drag Coefficient over Sea, J. Geophys. Res. 75, 6857–6770.
Stewart, R. W.: 1961, The Wave Drag of Wind over Water, J. Fluid Mech. 10, 189.
Stewart, R. W. and Manton, M. J.: 1971, Generation of Waves by Advected Pressure Fluctuations, Geophys. Fluid Dynamics 2, 362–272.
Thomson, Sir W. (Lord Kelvin): 1887, On the Waves Produced by a Single Impulse in Water of any Depth, or any Dispersive Medium, Proc. Roy. Soc. XLII, 80.
Townsend, A. A.: 1956, The Structure of Turbulent Shear Flow, Cambridge University Press.
Ursell, F.: 1956, ‘Wave Generation by Wind’, in Surveys in Mechanics, Cambridge University Press, 216–249.
Wyngaard, J. C., Côté, I., and Izumi, Y.: 1971, Local Free Convection, Similarity, and the Budgets of Shear Stress and Heat Flux, J. Atmos. Sci. 28, 1171–1182.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Stewart, R.W. The air-sea momentum exchange. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 6, 151–167 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00232481
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00232481