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Multi-scale Stochastic Parametrization of Wave Breaking and Wave/Current Interactions

Thursday, September 22, 3:30PM – 5PM
ACE 6.304

Juan Restrepo, Mathematics, University of Arizona

Wave breaking and white-capping are important momentum transfer mechanisms in ocean flows. Among other things, they are responsible for very significant wave dissipation, and the transfer of momentum from waves to currents. Modeling wave breaking poses several challenges: they are impulsive and hard to measure experimentally; they are not well understood; they seem to have no analytical characterization.

I will propose an alternative modeling approach, which not only is more amenable to field data constraints, it also is designed to circumvent the challenge in using them computationally, due to the multitude of spatio-temporal scales involved. We will show that the parametrization can be made to respect energetic constraints as well as statistical characteristics of the real phenomenon, and allows for the implementation of empirical rules that govern the poorly understood generation and dissipation of these impulsive events.

Hosted by Clint Dawson