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The influence of environmental parameters on active and maturing oceanic whitecaps
Author(s) -
Scanlon B.,
Ward B.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: oceans
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9291
pISSN - 2169-9275
DOI - 10.1002/2015jc011230
Subject(s) - reynolds number , wind speed , environmental science , ranging , range (aeronautics) , breaking wave , correlation coefficient , positive correlation , negative correlation , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , mathematics , physics , statistics , geography , materials science , geodesy , optics , medicine , wave propagation , turbulence , composite material
High‐resolution images of the ocean surface are examined using digital processing, achieving quantifications of actively breaking ( W A ), maturing ( W B ), and total ( W T = W A + W B ) whitecaps. The images are selected from two data sets of the North Atlantic and Southern Ocean to sample a maximal range of environmental conditions. A total of 125,860 images were processed and averaged to establish 622 10 min periods. Parameterizing W A , W B , and W T with wind speed achieved modest correlations while also displaying large variabilities. Parameterizing W T with wind speed and specific Reynolds numbers achieved correlation coefficients ranging from 0.76 to 0.79. The filtering of W T into its active stage of evolution W A and subsequent fittings with wind speed and specific Reynolds numbers achieved reduced correlation coefficients ranging from 0.62 to 0.66. We suggest that the contribution of W B serves to conceal and thus underestimate the variability of actively breaking waves.