Introduction - Breaking and Dissipation of Ocean Surface Waves - page 10

Figure 1.8 Wave ripples. Such waves are steep and break frequently, but do not form whitecapping.
Port Phillip Bay, Victoria. Photo from Anna Babanina
sediment transport, to production of turbulence, bubbles and droplets, to mean currents and
to generation of a small amount of waves reflected back into the ocean.
In the close-up picture in Figure 1.8 , the waves can still be breaking even though it is now
not possible to spot them visually. Short (in terms of wavelength) and small (in terms of
wave height) ripples can nevertheless be quite steep. Such micro-breakers do not generate
whitecapping, but demonstrate all the other singular surface features and irreversibly lose
a significant part of their height and dissipate their energy (see e.g. Jessup et al. , 1997a ).
At very strong wind-forcing conditions, wave-breaking behaviour is different yet again,
and even the definition of breaking needs to be adjusted. As seen in Figure 1.9 , taken from
an aeroplane in Hurricane Isabel, the air-water interface is now smeared, the atmospheric
boundary layer being full of droplets (spray) and the water-side boundary layer is filled