Abstract
Abstract Observations of sea surface temperature and wave height were made from a large, manned spar buoy (R/P FLIP) ∼100 km off the coast of Baja California. Surface temperature was measured with a radiation thermometer which viewed a disc on the surface 12 cm in diameter. The instrument responded to frequencies up to 3 Hz. Wave height was measured with a resistance gage located close to the field of view of the radiometer. Log-log plots of spectra of sea surface temperature exhibit a plateau between 0.05 and 0.5 Hz, followed by a rapid decrease in energy at frequencies >1 Hz. A coherence of 0.5 between waves and surface temperature occurs at the same frequency as the peak in the wave spectrum. Phase spectra show that warm temperatures associated with the thinning of the surface viscous layer occur systematically upwind of the crests of the dominant gravity waves and downwind of the crests of steeply sloping, shorter period gravity waves. The warm temperatures are hypothesized to be caused by enhanced wi...
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