The Interaction of Ocean Surface Processes, Waves, and Turbulence in the Adjacent Boundary Layers

In order for air-sea exchange processes to be estimated in a dynamically consistent manner in the coupled atmosphere-ocean boundary-layer system, it is necessary to account for the dynamics of surface waves and other movements of the air-water interface. This is also necessary for the interpretation of turbulent flux observations made within the boundary layers, particularly those made from non-stationary measurement platforms. In recent years, considerable progress has been made in observational technology for the direct determination of the vertical flux of momentum, heat, and mass by eddy covariance techniques.