Presenter: Nicolas Rascle (CICESE (Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada, Baja California))

Description:
The main factors governing current shear in the upper meters are the wave Stokes drift and the wave-induced vertical mixing. The representation of those mechanisms has evolved in the last decade, with the emergence of wave-current coupled models. Here we review the different surface drift obtained from ocean current models, coupled to waves to different extents. We propose a classification of those models in this framework. As revealed both by idealized and realistic numerical simulations in the Gulf of Mexico, some drift models do not need explicit representation of waves and could be directly forced by the wind. On the contrary, others models display large dependency on the wave age and thus need explicit coupling with surface waves. The conditions in which the latter scenario occurs are discussed. Large consequences are predicted in terms of surface drift trajectories, as illustrated for the case of the Gulf of Mexico.