It is noted that the results of recent experiments on the enhancement of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation below surface waves can be stated as follows. TKE dissipation is enhanced by a factor $15 H_{ ws}/z$ at depths $0.5 H_{ ws} < z < 20 H_{ ws}$ with respect to the wall-layer result $\epsilon = u_{ *w}^3/\kappa z$, where $u_{ *w}$ is the friction velocity in water and $H_{ ws}$ is the significant wind-sea wave height. For open ocean conditions, this reduces in most cases to an enhancement factor $10^6 u_{ *w}^2/gz \approx U_{ 10}^2/gz$.
Categories: physics.ao-ph