Breaking wave field statistics with a multilayer numerical framework

Wave breaking in the ocean affects the interaction between the atmosphere and upper ocean in many aspects. Statistical representations of both the waves and wave breaking are necessary at large scale, but the underlying relation between the two still bears uncertainties. Here we present a new numerical framework to simulate a broad-banded wave spectrum and its evolution by solving a semi-discretized form of the Navier-Stokes equation in the physical space. The framework is termed `multilayer model' since there are multiple layers (generalized vertical coordinate), and for each layer the equation is vertically integrated but horizontally discretized. The breaking is modeled by a slope-limiter on the surface height. We use typical wind wave spectra as input and extract the breaking wave front distribution Λ(c) (Phillips 1985). We discuss the dependence of Λ(c) and other statistical quantities (e.g. white cap coverage) on the input wave spectra.