Three-dimensional surface waves propagating over long internal waves

Abstract

A non-uniform current, such as may be generated by long internal waves, interacts with short surface waves and causes patterns on the sea surface that are of interest. In particular, regions of steep breaking waves may be relevant to specular radar scattering. A simple approach to modelling this problem is to take a set of short, surface waves of uniform wavenumber on the sea surface, as may be caused by a gust of wind. The direction of propagation of the surface waves is firstly taken to be the same as that of the current, and surface tension and viscous effects are neglected. We have a number of methods of solution at our disposal: linear (one-dimensional) ray theory is simple to apply to the problem, a nonlinear Schrödinger equation for the modulated wave amplitude, modified to include to effect of the current, can be used and solutions can be found using a fully nonlinear irrotational flow solver. Comparisons between the ‘exact’ nonlinear calculations for two dimensions (which are too complicated/ computationally intensive to be extended to three dimensions) compare well with the two approximate methods of solution, both of which can be extended, within their limitations, to model the full three-dimensional problem; here we present three-dimensional results from the linear ray theory. By choosing such a simple (although we consider physically realistic) initial state of uniform wavenumber short waves and assuming a sinusoidal surface current, we can reduce the two-dimensional problem to dependence on three non-dimensional parameters. In three-dimensions, we consider an initial condition with a uniform wavetrain at an angle α say, to the propagating current, thus introducing a fourth parameter into the problem. Extension of the linear ray theory from one space to two space dimensions is numerically quite simple since we maintain uniformity in the direction perpendicular to the current, and the only difficulty lies with the presentation of results, due to the large number of variables now present in the problem such as initial wavenumber, angle of propagation, position in ( x, y, t) space etc. In this paper we present just one solution in detail where waves are strongly refracted and form two distinct foci in space-time. There is a collimation of the short waves with the direction of the propagating current.