Description: |
Waves breaking at the ocean surface are important to the dynamical, chemical and biological processes at the air-sea interface. The traditional view is that the white capping and aero-dynamical surface roughness increase with wind speed up to a limiting value. This view is fundamental to hurricane forecasting and climate research but it has never been verified at extreme winds. Here we show with observations that at high wind speeds white caps remain constant and at still higher wind speeds are joined, and increasingly dominated, by streaks of foam and spray. [Source: Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans ]
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