At the ocean surface, the wind shear stress not only drives the ocean currents, but also generates waves and breaks waves. The turbulence in the ocean surface layer (OSL) is much enhanced due to wave breaking. A typical field measurement of this enhanced turbulence is the dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) ɛ at a depth y below the ocean surface, which scales as ϵ ∝ y − a . However, there is significant uncertainty as to the value of this power law exponent a in different field measurements. Here we consider the dissipation of TKE...
