The dissipation of energy beneath non-breaking waves.

Ocean waves are the most ubiquitous feature of the marine landscape. Despite their ever
presence, very little is known how they dissipate their energy while traversing a vast expanse
of ocean. From physics point of view the passing wave modifies the local flow velocities at
a scales few millimeters and larger and such flows are typically are associated with the turbulent
flow. Precise determination of the rate at which surface waves dissipate energy is
necessary to properly quantify a number of climate forming processes which are operating
across the air-sea interface and within the upper layer of the ocean. These upper ocean turbulent
processes determine the upper ocean mixing, the oceanic storage of heat or oceanic
sequestration of CO2, they a significant role in tropical cyclogenesis and have critical impact
on the marine life by controlling the nutrient supply. Here we show in that even the smallest
measured waves with 7 cm amplitude, were associated with significant amount of energy

dissipation of 1e-9 W=kg, while in case of larger and non breaking waves, their dissipated
energy is comparable to a breaking waves, a much less frequent but more visually distinct
oceanic event. We have established that the for the nonbreaking waves their dissipation depends
on the wave amplitude a as a^2.