Students A FIELD INVESTIGATION OF AIR FLOW IMMEDIATELY ABOVE OCEAN SURFACE WAVES

Simultaneous measurements of wind velocity and water height were made on eleven days at an exposed site off the New England coast. While a wave gauge measured water height, a vertical array of anemo-meters recorded wind velocities at as many as eight heights up to 12 meters above mean sea level (MSL). The three lowest anemometers were arranged to float 30, 50 and 70 cm above the instantaneous water surface. Continuous atmospheric pressure- and temperature measurements were made during several runs. An analysis of this data indicates that to a good first approxi-mation, the horizontal wind velocity increases as a logarithmic func-tion of height. Cross-correlations made between the horizontal wind velocity and water height reveal the maximum velocity at heights be-tween 30 cm and 4 m occurs somewhere just above the trough of the dominant water wave present under a variety of wind and sea conditions