Relationship of oceanic whitecap coverage to wind speed and wind history

Sea surface images obtained during the 2006 Marine Aerosol Production (MAP) campaign in the North East Atlantic were analysed for values of percentage whitecap coverage (K. Values of Ware presented for wind speeds Lip to circa 23 m s(.) (1). The W data were divided into two overlapping groups and a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Callaghan, Adrian, de Leeuw, Gerrit, Cohen, Leo, O'Dowd, Colin D.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Wiley-Blackwell 2008
Subjects:
sea
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10379/10652
https://doi.org/10.13025/27707
https://doi.org/10.1029/2008gl036165
Description
Summary:Sea surface images obtained during the 2006 Marine Aerosol Production (MAP) campaign in the North East Atlantic were analysed for values of percentage whitecap coverage (K. Values of Ware presented for wind speeds Lip to circa 23 m s(.) (1). The W data were divided into two overlapping groups and a piecewise, wind-speed-only parameterization of W is proposed that is valid for wind speeds between 3.70 m s(.) (1) and 23.09 m s(.) (1). Segregation of data points based upon a 2.5 hour wind history acted to decrease data scatter at wind speeds above approximately 9.25 m s(.) (1). At these wind speeds W values were greater for decreasing wind speeds than for increasing wind speeds. No clear wind history effect was observed at wind speeds below 9.25 m s(.) (1). Citation: Callaghan, A., G. de Leeuw, L. Cohen, and C. D. O'Dowd (2008), Relationship of oceanic whitecap coverage to wind speed and wind history, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L23609, doi:10.1029/2008GL036165.