Wind-Wave Coupling in a Complex Coastal Environment

Abstract:

The University of Miami’s air-sea interaction research team has acquired, tested and successfully deployed polarimetric cameras on a variety of shipboard platforms. This has opened up a wide range of studies of processes at the air-sea interface that are critical for interpretation of remote sensing imagery in coastal regions. We can now resolve short wave spectra in the field fast enough to capture the wave growth and relaxation as the local wind gusts and wanes, the phase dependence short waves on longer waves and the effects of rain, wave breaking and surfactants on the ocean surface. Here we will present results from shipboard experiments in the Columbia River mouth and corresponding laboratory observations in the University of Miami’s new Surge-Structure ATmosphere INteraction (SUSTAIN) laboratory that demonstrate the effects of topography and currents on surface waves and the corresponding air-sea coupling as observed in SAR imagery.