An empirical investigation of source term balance of small scale surface waves

Phillips [1984] presents a method to derive the dissipation function ( D ) of the wave action density conservation equation from the functional dependence of the wave saturation spectrum ( B ) on wind friction velocity. The method is applied to field spectra of small scale waves (wavelengths between 0.02 and 6 m). The results indicate that D approaches asymptotically to B 3 toward long gravity waves and to B 2.3 for short gravity waves. In the middle wavelength range (0.16 to 2.1 m), the dependence is as strong as B 10 . This may suggest that the spectral property of wave breaking is localized in the wavenumber space, with strong signature in the 0.16 to 2.1 m wavelength scale.