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arXiv · 2602.21976

A consistent phase-averaged model of the interactions between surface gravity waves and currents

Jacques Vanneste·William R. Young
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Abstract

We formulate a model of the two-way interactions between surface gravity waves and ocean currents. The model couples the transport of wave action in the four-dimensional (horizontal) position--wavevector phase space with the Craik--Leibovich system for the currents. Coupling is via the Doppler shift in the dispersion relation governing action transport, and wave pseudomomentum in the Craik--Leibovich system. The velocity in the Doppler shift is a vertical integral of the Lagrangian mean velocity of the currents, with a weight that is consistent with the vertical structure of the pseudomomentum. This consistency ensures conservation of momentum and energy in the coupled wave--current system. The conservation properties of the wave--current model stem from an underlying variational structure. We derive this structure from that of the rotating Euler equations for an incompressible fluid with free surface by introducing a Lagrangian wave--mean decomposition, making simplifying approximations, and Whitham averaging. The wave--mean decomposition is constructed such that the Lagrangian mean velocity is non-divergent and satisfies a rigid-lid boundary condition. We apply the wave--current model to the problem of generation of inertial oscillations by surface waves originally considered by Hasselmann.

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Jacques Vanneste, William R. Young. 2026-02-25. A consistent phase-averaged model of the interactions between surface gravity waves and currents. https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.21976

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