Here we have determined the nature of turbulent flow associated with oceanic nonbreaking waves, which are on average much more prevalent than breaking waves in most wind conditions. We found this flow to be characterized by a low turbulence microscale Reynolds number of 30 < Re < 100. We observed that the turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate associated with nonbreaking waves , ranged to 3 • 10 −4 W/kg for a wave amplitude 50 cm. The , under nonbreaking waves, was consistent with = 2 T (S i) 2 ; S ij is the large-scale (energy-containing scales) wave-induced mean flow stress tensor. The turbulent Reynolds stress associated with nonbreaking waves was consistent with experimental data when parameterized by an amplitude independent constant turbulent eddy viscosity, 10 times larger than the molecular value. Given that nonbreaking waves typically cover a much larger fraction of the ocean surface (90-100%) than breaking waves, this result shows that their contribution to wave dissipation can be significant. Plain Language Summary Considering that surface waves cover most of the ocean, the precise determination of the rate at which surface waves dissipate energy is necessary to properly quantify climate, weather, or ocean dynamic processes at the air-sea interface and within the upper layer of the ocean. The upper-ocean mixing intensity is often related to breaking surface waves, while the turbulence generated by nonbreaking surface waves is poorly understood and thus not well represented. Our laboratory experiments used microstructure and optical measurements to observe micro velocity shears and temperature fluctuations associated with passing nonbreaking solitary surface waves. Here we report measurements of the energy dissipation associated with these nonbreaking surface waves. We present an analytical approach to quantify the nonbreaking wave turbulence strength from large-scale (energy-containing) flow measurements. The analysis by Teixeira and Belcher (2002) demonstrated that the main mechanism responsible for NBSW turbulence is associated with Stokes drift tilting the small-scale vortex structures, followed by their RESEARCH LETTER

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Short range infrared (IR) observations of ocean surface reveal complicated spatially varying and evolving structures. Here we present an approach to use spatially correlated time-series IR images, over a time scale of one tenth of a second, of the water surface to derive underlying surface velocity and turbulence fields. The approach here was tested in a laboratory using grid-generated turbulence and a heater assembly. The technique was compared with in situ measurements to validate our IR derived remote measurements. The IR measured turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation rates were consistent with in situ measured dissipation using a microstructure profiler (VMP). We used measurements of the gradient of the velocity field to calculate TKE dissipation rates at the surface. Based on theoretical and experimental considerations, we have proposed two models of IR TKE dissipation rate retrievals and designed an approach for oceanic field IR applications.

We have carried out an experimental study of the turbulence kinetic energy dissipation rate (ϵ), temperature dissipation rate (χ), and turbulent heat flux (THF) within the water surface layer in the presence of non-breaking wave, surface convection, and horizontal heat and eddy fluxes that play a prominent role in the front. We noted that the non-breaking wave dominates ϵ values within the surface layer. While analyzing the vertical ϵ variability, the presence of a wave-affected layer from the water surface to a depth of z≈1.25λw is observed, where λw is the wavelength. ϵ associated with non-breaking waves ranged to 4.9×10−6–7×10−6 m2/s3 for the wavelength range of 0.038 m < λw < 0.098 m categorized as the gravity and gravity-capillary wave regimes. ϵ values increase for longer λw and non-breaking wave ϵ values represent their significant contribution to the ocean energy budget and dynamic of surface layer considering that the non-breaking wave covers the large fraction of ocean surface. We also found that the surface mean square slope (MSS) and wave generated ϵ have the same order of magnitude, i.e., MSS ∼ϵ. Besides, we have documented that the small-scale temperature fluctuation change (i.e., χ) is consistent with the large-scale temperature gradient change (i.e., d<T>/dz). The value of the THF is approximately constant within the surface layer. It represents that the measured THF near the water surface can be considered a surface water THF, challenging to measure directly.