Studying the relationship between wave steepness and wave age is important for describing wind wave growth with energy balance equation of significant waves. After invoking the dispersion rela- tion of surface gravity wave in deep water, a new relationship between wave steepness and wave age is revealed based on the “3/2-power law” (Toba, 1972), in which wave steepness is a function of wave age with a drag coefficient as a parameter. With a given wave age, a larger drag coefficient would lead to larger wave steepness. This could be interpreted as the result of interaction between wind and waves. Comparing with previous relationships, the newly proposed one is more consistent with observational data in field and laboratory.
As an important physical process at the air-sea interface, wave movement and breaking have a significant effect on the ocean surface mixed layer (OSML). When breaking waves occur at the ocean surface, turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) is input downwards, and a sublayer is formed near the surface and turbulence vertical mixing is intensively enhanced. A one-dimensional ocean model including the Mellor-Yamada level 2.5 turbulence closure equations was employed in our research on variations in turbulent energy budget within OSML. The influence of wave breaking could be introduced into the model by modifying an existing surface boundary condition of the TKE equation and specifying its input. The vertical diffusion and dissipation of TKE were effectively enhanced in the sublayer when wave breaking was considered. Turbulent energy dissipated in the sublayer was about 92.0% of the total depth-integrated dissipated TKE, which is twice higher than that of non-wave breaking. The shear production of TKE decreased by 3.5% because the mean flow fields tended to be uniform due to wave-enhanced turbulent mixing. As a result, a new local equilibrium between diffusion and dissipation of TKE was reached in the wave-enhanced layer. Below the sublayer, the local equilibrium between shear production and dissipation of TKE agreed with the conclusion drawn from the classical law-of-the-wall (Craig and Banner, 1994).
