Determining Surface Stress in the Nearshore and Coastal Ocean
Session ID#: 36255
Session Description:
Surface stress generates waves and currents in the ocean and has a substantial impact on the air-sea heat flux. The stress is determined by the combination of wind velocity, waves, and surface currents. Observational evidence suggests surface stresses may be substantially larger in coastal regions than expected for the same wave and bulk wind velocity conditions in the open ocean, due to fetch and wave age effects, waves interacting with the bottom, or the influence of coastal land features, and that the surface stress direction can depart substantially from the wind direction.
The goal of this meeting is to facilitate discussion among the buoy, high-frequency and marine radar, synthetic aperture radar, and scatterometer science communities regarding joint efforts to synthesize existing data in coastal regions and design future cross-platform experiments. The purpose of the synthesis would be to determine 1) in what topographic settings we can estimate surface stresses across a transect from the open ocean through coastal waters to land, and 2) the need for future experiments, perhaps linking different platform types by relating each to direct covariance measurements. The discussion will begin with a short panel in which participants will review the current capabilities of existing measurement platforms.
Primary Contact: Melanie R Fewings, University of Connecticut, Department of Marine Sciences, Groton, CT, United States
Presenters: James B Edson, Univ Connecticut, Groton, CT, United States, Alexander Grant Wineteer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, Ernesto Rodriguez, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, Mark A Bourassa, Florida State Univ, Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, Tallahassee, FL, United States, Anthony Kirincich, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States, Fabrice Ardhuin, LOPS, Brest, France and Merrick C Haller, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, United States
Cross-Topics:
