DISCUSSIONS

551.556 : 551.46

Wind stress on water : an hypothesis

By W. H. MUNK
(See Q.J., 81, p. 320)

551.554 : 551.465

Wind stress on a water surface

By H. CHARNOCK

National Institute of Oceanography, Wormley,Surrey

The vertical distribution of horizontal mean wind in the lowest 8 metres over a reservoir (1.6 km x 1km) has been measured using sensitive anemometers freely exposed from a fixed mast in water 16 m deep, the fetch being more than 1 km. The resulting profiles are closely logarithmic, the small differences being systematic and possibly due to the thermal instability which existed when the measurements were made. The usual law for wind profiles in neutral stability is

where u is the wind speed at height z, k is von KQrmPns constant, log z (0) the intercept on the T~ being the surface drag log z axis, and u# the so-called friction velocity defined by T~ = and p the density of the air. T o characterize the profiles u#/k, their slope, was plotted in relation to z (0), their intercept; this allowed a direct comparison with other profiles, in particular those recently measured in a laboratory channel by Sibul. The agreement was better than expected and indicated that z (0) was comparatively independent of fetch and stability but was largely determined by I(#. The relation between uI and z (0) agreed roughly with the simplest non-dimensional relation between them, gz ( O ) / U , ~= constant, so that one is led to a generalized wind profile for flow over a water surface u 1 - =i log constant
U#

%+
U#

which specifies the drag, given the wind at one known height. An approximate value of the constant is 12.5. This expression can be compared with earlier work. The better wind-profile observations show rough agreement; the experimental scatter is necessarily large since a water surface is aerodynamically much smoother than most land surfaces, precision anemometry in difficult circumstances being required to provide sufficiently precise values. Oceanographic measurements of the tilt of water surfaces are in fair agreement at high wind speeds but at low wind speeds the data are conflicting. The early results which imply that the drag-coefficient (ux2/u2) increases with decreasing wind speed in light winds are thought to be in error; some support for this belief comes from recent estimates of drag using a modified ageostrophic technique, which agree roughly among themselves and with the general expression. 639

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DISCUSSIONS

Dr. M. S. LONGUET-HIGGINS : At the National Institute of Oceanography we are in the process of making direct measurements of atmospheric pressure close to the sea surface. The apparatus is contained in a freely floating buoy, flat in shape and about 6 ft in diameter. It carries two gyroscopes, to measure the inclination of the surface, an accelerometer with two integrating circuits to measure vertical displacement, and a simplified microbarograph to measure pressure. Although the apparatus will only give the large-scale pressure distribution, we expect it to give valuable information. Several complete records have already been taken, and are now being analysed. : The papers of Munk and Charnock represent to me a happy Dr. W. V. R. MALKUS step to beyond the many purely descriptive studies of waves in recent oceanographic literature. Though these descriptive studies have encouraged new experimental inquiries, they have also restricted the interpretation of waves to a non-mechanistic statistical language. This would be satisfactory if waves were completely random gas molecules, but waves have organization, waves transport momentum and energy, wave fields are basically non-isotropic and, most important, waves are intimately interrelated with the turbulent wind field which creates them. Hence to study a mechanism for driving waves (wind field given, Munk), or to study the changes in the wind field (effect of wave field given by heuristic formulae, Charnock) is indeed a step towards mechanistic interpretation. One may hope that the next step is a joint theory; wind and waves both free to achieve a jointly stable system. This will of course be a statistical stability, but in most respects far from random.
551.465

Some observations of turbulence near the sea bed in a tidal current

By K . F. BOWDEN
Oceanography Department, University of Liverpool
SUMMARY

Oceanographers are interested in turbulence in the flow of water in the sea or in estuaries because of its influence on the dynamics of water movements and mixing. These processes are more usually studied by their large-scale effects, and detailed investigation of the turbulent fluctuations has been attempted less frequently in oceanography than on the model scale or in the atmosphere. This paper deals with fluctuations in the velocity components. Earlier observations were reviewed by Bowden and Proudman (1949), who also described experiments in the Mersey estuary, using the Doodson current meter, Further observations on similar lines were described by Bowden and Fairbairn (1952a). An attempt to measure the vertical fluctuations as well as the horizontal fluctuations was made by Francis, Stommel, Farmer and Parson (1953) in the Kennebec estuary, Maine. The observations described in this paper were made using an electromagnetic flow meter, a new type of instrument for this purpose. It was possible to measure the vertical component tu, as well as the longitudinal component u, of the fluctuations, and hence the correlation between them. The instrument was designed at the National Institute of Oceanography, and uses alternating current at 50 C/S, passed through a coil, to produce the magnetic field. Two pairs of electrodes are used to measure the two components of flow in the plane perpendicular to the direction of the magnetic field. The measuring unit is only 4 in. in diameter and two such units can be mounted in various positions on a tripod, 6 ft high, which is laid on the sea bed. The potential difference across the electrodes is approximately 50 pv per kt, and is amplified by electronic circuits after induced p.d.s, other than those due to the flow of water, have been balanced out. The output is recorded photographically. n an area from 12 m The observations at sea were made off Red Wharf Bay, Anglesey, i to 20 m deep, where measurements of tidal currents and bottom friction had been made previously (Bowden and Fairbairn 1952b). The tidal currents at springs reach a velocity of about 2 kt at the surface. The technique employed was to lower the tripod from an anchored boat, a canvas fin keeping it orientated in the direction of the mean current while being lowered. The tripod with the measuring units remained stationary on the bottom while the records were taken and was raised again before the tidal current changed direction.