Wave-Winds-Current Interactions

What mechanisms drive the spatial variability of ocean surface waves? What is the role of wave on air-sea fluxes?

🌊 Wave–Wind–Current Interactions

Surface waves interact with winds and ocean currents across a range of spatial and temporal scales. These wave–wind–current interactions imprint spatial and temporal variability in the sea state, influencing air–sea exchange, upper-ocean transport, and interpretation of observations from satellite remote sensing. Our research focus especially on oceanic mesoscale and submesoscale processes (100–1 km), where the coupling between waves, winds, and currents can create sharp gradients in the wave field. These spatial gradients are often missing from models and are challenging to detect with traditional observing systems.

🔬 Funded Projects

• Understanding sea state gradients in SWOT observations: opportunities and challenges. Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) Science Team (NASA 80NSSC24K1640). Team: Bia Villas Bôas (Mines), Ryan Dù (Mines), Mommen Hell (WHOI), Luc Lenain (Scripps).

• A coupled framework for quantifying interactions between winds, waves, and currents. International Ocean Vector Winds Science Team (NASA 80NSSC23K0979). Team: Bia Villas Bôas (Mines), Gwendal Marechal (Mines), Matt Mazloff (Scripps), Rui Sun (Scripps).

• Surface wave variability in the meso-to-submesoscale range. Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) Science Team (NASA 80NSSC24K0411). Team: Bia Villas Bôas (Mines), Gwendal Marechal (Mines).

📚 Relevant Publications

• Villas Bôas, A. B., Maréchal, G., Bohé, A. (accepted). Observing Interactions Between Waves, Winds, and Currents from SWOT. Geophysical Research Letters. https://doi.org/10.22541/essoar.173557501.11384934/v1

• Wang, H., Villas Bôas, A. B., Vanneste, J., & Young, W. R. (2024). Scattering of surface waves by ocean currents: the U2H map. Journal of Fluid Mechanics. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2402.05652

• Villas Bôas, A. B., Lenain, L., Cornuelle, B. D., Gille, S. T., & Mazloff, M. R. (2022). A Broadband View of the Sea Surface Height Wavenumber Spectrum. Geophysical Research Letters. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL096699

• Villas Bôas, A. B., Cornuelle, B. D., Mazloff, M. R., Gille, S. T., & Ardhuin, F. (2020). Wave–Current Interactions at Meso- and Submesoscales: Insights from Idealized Numerical Simulations. Journal of Physical Oceanography. https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-20-0151.1