Spilling breakers

Spilling breakers receive much less attention from casual observers of the ocean surface than their more dramatic and powerful plunging counterparts. However, spilling breakers probably occur more frequently than plunging bre akers and are important contributors to turbulence, spray, and bubble gener ation at the water surface. Recent research has concentrated primarily on r elatively weak and/or short-wavelength spillers whose crests are strongly a ffected by surface tension forces both during wave steepening and the resul ting turbulent free-surface flow. When surface tension forces are dominant, the free surface does not overturn or splash during the breaking process b ut undergoes some unique and interesting motions. In this review. recent re search contributions are discussed and placed in the context of spilling be havior over a wide range of wavelengths and breaking intensities.