Breaking waves are considered an important source of turbulent energy, in addition to traditional shear production in the air-sea system at all scales. Breaking waves also play an important role in the development of thermo-dynamical and turbulent structures in the ocean. Based on a new concept of oceanic turbulence and a wave-breaking model, a surface wave parameterization is developed. This wave parameterization with wave-dependent roughness is compared with available data on wave-dependent turbulence dissipation, roughness length, drag coefficient, and momentum fluxes using a coupled air-wave-sea model.

Taking the wind-wave-turbulence-current relationship into account, a new turbulence closure with the wave parameterization is applied in developing the NAval postgraduate school ocean Model (NAM). The wave parameterization in the model is able to relate model variables to wave parameters such as wave height, age, phase speed, period, and length. The NAM box model is used in an ocean circulation-wave coupling study with idealized wave height and wave age fields for the West Florida Shelf. This study is focused on the sensitivity of the current field to the surface waves. The study also demonstrates the capability of the NAM model in reproducing an observed upwelling feature for the West Florida Shelf.