Acronimo: SEAPLANE
Titolo: SimulatIon and modElling of interfAce fluxes in wind-wave flows for an imProved cLimAte scieNcE
Responsabile scientifico: dott. Federico Dalla Barba - Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale-Università' degli Studi di PADOVA
Coordinatore: prof. Andrea CIMARELLI - Università degli Studi di MODENA e REGGIO EMILIA
Partner-Unità di ricerca: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale-Università degli Studi di PADOVA, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
Bando: PRIN 2022 - Decreto Direttoriale n. 1385 del 01/09/2023
Durata: 30/11/2023 - 29/11/2025 (24 mesi)
Budget totale progetto: € 223.900,00

Abstract del progetto

The interactions of a turbulent wind with a water surface represents a very fundamental problem for many atmospheric processes. The momentum and heat exchanges across the interface with oceans abruptly affects the atmosphere and the understanding of the driving mechanisms would certainly improve weather predictions capabilities. However, after decades of research efforts, the wind-wave problem is still recognized as extremely elusive. The reason is the multiscale and multiphysical nature of the phenomena involved. Indeed, the scales of the turbulent wind are significantly affected by the smaller scales of the water waves which in turn are influenced by the structure of the turbulent wind itself thus forming a complex multiscale coupling phenomenon. Furthermore, processes of different nature are involved (e.g chemistry, biology, radiation etc) thus further increasing the complexity of the multiscale wind-wave interactions due to multiphysics. The SEAPLANE project aims to address these issues by using innovative statistical tools and advanced modeling approaches. The scale- and position-dependent wind-wave mechanisms will be studied by means of the Kolmogorov and Yaglom equations applied to a two-phase fully coupled DNS simulation, first of its kind. The theoretical framework enables unprecedented details on the scale-by-scale cascade mechanisms of momentum and heat in a turbulent wind interacting with water waves. The formalism is strictly connected with the filtering approach to the Navier-Stokes equations and will be used to develop an advanced LES practice. This will be used to produce a high-fidelity database for the momentum and heat exchanges at the air-sea surface from low to high wind speeds. Such information is of overwhelming importance for forecasting systems where these surface fluxes are parametrized using rough assumptions. The SEAPLANE project will also address this issue that, more generally, is related to the rough approximation of several multiphysical processes determining the atmosphere dynamics at mesoscale. The state-of-art tool WRF-Chem for the simulation of the atmosphere dynamics will be improved by the fundamental insights gained on LES and on the heat and momentum exchanges. Furthermore, an advanced parametrization of the mechanisms generating the sea spray aerosol will be also introduced. Aerosol particles are widely recognized to have a strong impact on the Earth's climate and the developed model will have a strong impact on the quality of forecasting systems. Overall, the unprecedented details on the cascade phenomena, the production of high-fidelity LES data bases and the improved parameterizations of the atmosphere-ocean exchanges will have significant impact on climate science and in the prediction capabilities of climate and weather forecasting systems at all timescales.