Wind-Wave Interactions under the Influence of the Somali Low-Level Jet.

Since the speed of the Somali low-level jet may reach 40 ms in certain regions over the Indian Ocean during the summer, a constant value for the drag coefficient, C sub 10, has been found inadequate for many air-sea interaction studies such as heat flux and evaporation computations. During MONEX 1979 May and June, high-resolution rawinsonde stations were set up at Mogadishu and at Gardo, in Somalia, to measure the structure of this jet. Simultaneous observations of surface winds and waves downwind from the jet were made by research and merchant ships. It is the purpose of this paper to study the significant heights and periods of sea waves under the influence of the Somali jet. In order to improve input to the study of atmosphere-ocean systems, such as heat budget, wave and current forecasting, and numerical modeling of the marine boundary layer, a recently developed wind stress formulation which incorporates wave-breaking characteristics is also investigated.