Investigation of the Wind Wave Breaking Shape Using the Sea Surface Video Records

V. V. Malinovsky✉, A. E. Korinenko

Marine Hydrophysical Institute of RAS, Sevastopol, Russian Federation

✉ e-mail: vladimir.malinovsky@mhi-ras.ru

Abstract

Purpose. The work is aimed at studying the statistics of width-to-length ratio of a breaking crest for an active phase of wind wave breakings and at assessing the possibility of approximating the geometric shape of a breaking with an ellipse.

Methods and Results. The experimental data including the video records of sea surface and the wind speed measurements were obtained at the stationary oceanographic platform in the Black Sea Hydrophysical Subsatellite Polygon of Marine Hydrophysical Institute (near the village of Katsiveli, the Southern Coast of Crimea) in 2015–2019. Processing the in situ data made it possible to form the arrays both of lengths and areas of the breakings and the synchronous measurements of wind speed.

Conclusions. The distributions of random variables proportional to the minor-to-major axes ratios of breakings are obtained. It is shown that these distributions are coincident for the whitecaps of different scales. This fact testifies to the similarity of breaking geometric shapes. The average value of breaking axis ratio obtained from all the data is 0.41. It is concluded that the average geometric shape of the breaking boundaries is satisfactorily described by an ellipse with eccentricity 0.91. The ratio of the speed of a breaking centroid to that of its anterior front is estimated to be 0.9.

Keywords

wind wave breakings, in situ studies, distribution of wave breaking lengths, self-similarity of wave breaking geometric form

Acknowledgements

The study was carried out with financial support of the Russian Science Foundation grant No. 24-27-20105, and under the Agreement with the Department of Education and Science of Sevastopol No. 85 dated June 19, 2024.

Original russian text

Original Russian Text © The Authors, 2024, published in MORSKOY GIDROFIZICHESKIY ZHURNAL, Vol. 40, Iss. 4, pp. 576–587 (2024)

For citation

Malinovsky, V.V. and Korinenko, A.E., 2024. Investigation of the Wind Wave Breaking Shape Using the Sea Surface Video Records. Physical Oceanography, 31(4), pp. 527-538.

References

  1. Bondur, V.G. and Sharkov, E.A., 1986. Statistical Characteristics of Linear Elements of Foam Formations on the Sea Surface as Derived from Optical Sounding Data. Issledovanie Zemli iz Kosmosa, (4), pp. 21-31 (in Russian).
  2. Gemmrich, J.R., Banner, M.L. and Garrett, C., 2008. Spectrally Resolved Energy Dissipation Rate and Momentum Flux of Breaking Waves. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 38(6), pp. 1296-1312. https://doi.org/10.1175/2007JPO3762.1
  3. Korinenko, A.E., Malinovsky, V.V. and Kudryavtsev, V.N., 2018. Experimental Research of Statistical Characteristics of Wind Wave Breaking. Physical Oceanography, 25(6), pp. 489-500. https://doi.org/10.22449/1573-160X-2018-6-489-500
  4. Korinenko, A.E. and Malinovsky, V.V., 2023. Field Investigations of the Geometric Features of Wind Wave Breaking. Physical Oceanography, 30(6), pp. 776-791.
  5. Korinenko, A.E., Malinovsky, V.V., Kudryavtsev, V.N. and Dulov, V.A., 2020. Statistical Characteristics of Wave Breakings and Their Relation with the Wind Waves’ Energy Dissipation Based on the Field Measurements. Physical Oceanography, 27(5), pp. 472-488. https://doi.org/10.22449/1573-160X-2020-5-472-488
  6. Sharkov, E.A., 2007. Breaking Ocean Waves: Geometry, Structure, and Remote Sensing. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 278 p. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29828-1
  7. Schwendeman, M.S. and Thomson, J., 2017. Sharp-Crested Breaking Surface Waves Observed from a Ship-Based Stereo Video System. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 47(4), pp. 775-792. https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-16-0187.1
  8. Kleiss, J.M. and Melville, W.K., 2011. The Analysis of Sea Surface Imagery for Whitecap Kinematics. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 28(2), pp. 219-243. https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JTECHO744.1
  9. Malinovsky, V.V., Korinenko, A.E. and Kudryvtsev V.N., 2018. Empirical Model of Radar Scattering in the 3-cm Wavelength Range on the Sea at Wide Incidence Angles. Radiophysics and Quantum Electronics, 61(2), pp.98-108. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11141-018-9874-7
  10. Fairall, C.W., Bradley, E.F., Hare, J.E., Grachev, A.A. and Edson, J.B., 2003. Bulk Parameterization of Air-Sea Fluxes: Updates and Verification for the COARE Algorithm. Journal of Climate, 16, pp. 571-591. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(2003)016%3C0571:BPOASF%3E2.0.CO;2
  11. Mironov, A.S. and Dulov, V.A., 2008. Detection of Wave Breaking Using Sea Surface Video Records. Measurement Science and Technology, 19(1), 015405. https://doi.org/10.1088/0957-0233/19/1/015405
  12. Dulov, V.A., Korinenko, A.E., Kudryavtsev, V.N. and Malinovsky, V.V., 2021. Modulation of Wind-Wave Breaking by Long Surface Waves. Remote Sensing, 13(14), 2825. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13142825
  13. Pivaev, P.D., Kudryavtsev, V.N., Korinenko, A.E. and Malinovsky, V.V., 2021. Field Observations of Breaking of Dominant Surface Waves. Remote Sensing, 13(16), 3321. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13163321
  14. Mironov, A.S. and Dulov, V.A., 2008 Statistical Properties of Individual Events and Energy Dissipation of Breaking Waves. Ecological Safety of Coastal and Shelf Zones and Comprehensive Use of Shelf Resources, (16), pp. 97-115 (in Russian).
  15. Kudryavtsev, V.N., Hauser, D., Caudal, G. and Chapron, B., 2003. A Semiempirical Model of the Normalized Radar Cross-Section of the Sea Surface 1. Background Model. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 108(C3), 8054. https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JC001003
  16. Banner, M.L. and Peirson, W.L., 2007. Wave Breaking Onset and Strength for Two-Dimensional Deep-Water Wave Groups. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 585, pp. 93-115. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022112007006568
  17. Phillips, O.M., 1985. Spectral and Statistical Properties of the Equilibrium Range in Wind-Generated Gravity Waves. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 156, pp. 505-531. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022112085002221

Download the article (PDF)