Azimuthal and Radial Variation of Wind-Generated Surface Waves inside Tropical Cyclones

Abstract

AbstractFor wind-generated waves, the wind-wave triplets (reference wind speed, significant wave height, and spectral peak wave period) are intimately connected through the fetch- or duration-limited wave growth functions. The full set of the triplets can be obtained knowing only one of the three, together with the input of fetch (duration) information using the pair of fetch-limited (duration limited) wave growth functions. The air–sea energy and momentum exchanges are functions of the wind-wave triplets, and they can be quantified with the wind-wave growth functions. Previous studies have shown that the wave development inside hurricanes follows essentially the same growth functions established for steady wind forcing conditions. This paper presents the analysis of wind-wave triplets collected inside Hurricane Bonnie 1998 at category 2 stage along 10 transects radiating from the hurricane center. A fetch model is formulated for any location inside the hurricane. Applying the fetch model to the 2D hurricane wind field, the detailed spatial distribution of the wave field and the associated energy and momentum exchanges inside the hurricane are investigated. For the case studied, the energy and momentum exchanges display two local maxima resulting from different weightings of wave age and wind speed. Referenced to the hurricane heading, the exchanges on the right half plane of the hurricane are much stronger than those on the left half plane. Integrated over the hurricane coverage area, the right-to-left ratio is about 3:1 for both energy and momentum exchanges. Computed exchange rates with and without considering wave properties differ significantly.