AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE ROLE OF ATMOSPHERIC STABILITY INWIND-WAVE GROWTH

Differences in temperature between air and water influence the stabili ty of the atmospheric boundary layer. The altered structure of the bou ndary can affect the rate of growth of surface gravity waves. An exten sive data set, collected under a wide range of well-documented atmosph eric stability conditions, is investigated to quantify this effect. It is found that in unstable conditions, wind wave growth is enhanced, w hereas in stable conditions, it is reduced. A correction, which can be applied to common fetch-limited growth curves, is developed which can account for atmospheric stability. In extreme cases, the error (in te rms of energy) introduced by the neglect of stability effects can be a s much as 50%. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.