Ocean swell within the kinetic equation for water waves

Badulin, Sergei I.; Zakharov, Vladimir E.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-24-237-2017

Articles | Volume 24, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-24-237-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-24-237-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 24, issue 2

Research article

|

06 Jun 2017

Research article |

| 06 Jun 2017

Ocean swell within the kinetic equation for water waves

Sergei I. Badulin and Vladimir E. Zakharov

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Final revised paper (published on 06 Jun 2017)
Preprint (discussion started on 17 Oct 2016)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'peer review of NPG 16 -61', Anonymous Referee #1, 08 Dec 2016
RC2: 'comments', Anonymous Referee #2, 22 Dec 2016
AC1: 'Answers to referee #1', Sergei Badulin, 21 Feb 2017
AC2: 'Answers to referee #2', Sergei Badulin, 21 Feb 2017

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Sergei Badulin on behalf of the Authors (21 Feb 2017) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (01 Mar 2017) by Victor Shrira

RR by Gerbrant van Vledder (14 Mar 2017)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Nonlinear Processes Geophysics, NPG-16-61R1, version 3
14 March 2017

Ocean Swell within the kinetic equation for water waves
Zakharov and Badulin

The revised version of this manuscript has improved significantly and only a few issues remain to be clarified. Based on my considerations I recommend a minor revision.

The 3 important notions that were identified for improvement have been handled seriously.

Concerning the initial decay of swell is worth mentioning that this also appears in the abstract and elsewhere in Snodgrass et al. (1966). In addition, there is a nice video on youtube where Walter Munk looks back at this important experiment

Waves Across the Pacific
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX5cKoOm6Pk

What struck me were 2 remarks. First about the near-field decay of wave height and the almost non-effect of local wind on the passing swell waves. It would be appreciated to incorporate these notions and refer to Munk.

The English style of writing is good, although at some places small grammatical errors are made. One last round of a native speaker is recommended when this manuscript reaches its final stage. I am very satisfied with the quality and clarity of the figures.

Some detailed remarks, also recommendations for improved readability
Page number/Line number

2/9 rephrase sentence. Wording a bit strange

2/11 some confusion may arise between the (theoretical) models and the simulation (models) inline 2/13. Both are models but they differ.

5/10 is the mentioned special study this manuscript or something else. Please be clear

8/23-28 Some additional information should be added to avoid a possible confusion in this block of text. One the one hand, it is stated that (explicit) dissipation is absent in the simulation. One the other hand the phrase ‘very strong dissipation’ is mentioned. Moreover, the drop in Hs is later attributed to leakage (see 17/30). As in this 1-point model no spatial spreading occurs, the initial drop in Hs should be more clearly attributed to a specific effect.

17/31 Again some clarification is needed about the concept model. Do the authors expect that an accurate estimation of Snl4 in a third-generation model can reproduce these features of swell, and also much better than the DIA?

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RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (05 Apr 2017)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (further review by Editor) (05 Apr 2017) by Victor Shrira

AR by Sergei Badulin on behalf of the Authors (13 Apr 2017) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (further review by Editor) (21 Apr 2017) by Victor Shrira

AR by Sergei Badulin on behalf of the Authors (26 Apr 2017) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (29 Apr 2017) by Victor Shrira

AR by Sergei Badulin on behalf of the Authors (03 May 2017) Manuscript

Short summary

In our simulations of sea swell, we show that its evolution exhibits remarkable features of universality. At long stretches the swell ``forgets'' initial conditions and keeps its specific distribution of wave energy in scales and directions. Slow evolution of swell in time and space can be related to fundamental relationships of the so-called theory of weak turbulence that gives a solid basis for the swell prediction.