Abstract
The sea surface is generally considered to be aerodynamically rough at high winds (U>7 m/s), where the roughness length increases with wind velocity; below this velocity, the atmospheric surface layer enters a transition region and then becomes aerodynamically smooth as the wind velocity further decreases. The sea surface is shown, however, to reach its smoothest condition at a wind velocity of about 5 m/s, and then become rough again at lower velocities. In the latter case, the roughness length increases as the wind velocity decreases in accordance with the surface-tension relation governing wind-wave interactions.
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Wu, J. The sea surface is aerodynamically rough even under light winds. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 69, 149–158 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00713300
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00713300