Deep flows transmitted by forced surface gravity waves
The manuscript presents an analysis of how atmospheric pressure forcing of a narrow-banded deep-water gravity-wave packet transmits momentum into the ocean interior and how that momentum is partitioned between wave-supported and mean flows. It addresses the long-standing question of where momentum resides during and after wind-wave generation, and situates the work within the theory of radiation stress, Stokes drift, and Lagrangian-Eulerian mean flows in water-wave dynamics.\N\NThe authors employ a systematic multi-scale asymptotic expansion in a Lagrangian reference frame for an inviscid, irrotational, two-dimensional, deep-water setting. The approach relies on conservation laws for impulse, momentum and energy derived directly in Lagrangian coordinates, with the specific-volume gauge \(J=1\) (Miche's condition) simplifying the algebra. The pressure forcing is prescribed at the free surface as a weak, narrow-banded carrier \(p_{\mathrm{atm}}=2g\varepsilon A\sin\theta\), producing to leading order a resonantly forced harmonic-oscillator response for the wave field; second-order terms capture the mean flow via a streamfunction that solves a Poisson problem whose source is the wave pseudomomentum. The exposition is clear and carefully motivated, connecting calculations to classical results of \N\textit{M. S. Longuet-Higgins} and \textit{R. W. Stewart} [Deep Sea Res. Oceanogr. Abstr. 11, No. 4, 529--562 (2964; \url{doi:10.1016/0011-7471(64)90001-4})] and \N\textit{M. E. McIntyre} [J. Fluid Mech. 106, 331--347 (1981; Zbl 0471.76016)], and the arguments proceed via explicit derivations of conservation relations, order-by-order solutions of the forced problem, and a clean separation between the rapidly oscillatory carrier and the slowly varying long-wave response. Figures 1--3 (pp. 13--16) illustrate the corresponding streamline patterns of the deep return flow, the cancellation during forcing, and the residual dipole after forcing ceases.\N\NThe principal findings are precise. During forcing, the depth-integrated momentum resides entirely in the near-surface Lagrangian-mean drift (the Stokes drift of the carrier); the packet-scale deep return flow that would otherwise accompany the drift is pointwise cancelled by the packet-scale component of the imposed atmospheric pressure gradient. Immediately after the forcing is switched off, the wave packet (carrier plus its long-wave Eulerian response) propagates away with zero net momentum at every horizontal location in deep water, in agreement with the classical freely propagating theory. The momentum imparted by the atmosphere does not travel with the packet: it remains in the forcing region as a non-propagating, dipolar ``wave-transmitted flow, which can be constructed as the equal-and-opposite of the deep return flow at switch-off together with a small free-surface adjustment determined by a Hilbert-transform relation for the mean sea-level change. A further calculation considers a deep-to-shallow depth step: although the incoming deep-water packet has zero momentum, partial trapping/reflection of the long wave at the step yields a finite packet momentum in the finite-depth region; conservation is maintained because an oppositely signed, weakly advecting current remains bound to the step. These results sharpen McIntyre's finite-depth interpretation [loc. cit.], remove paradoxes that would otherwise arise in the deep-water limit, and give a concrete Lagrangian mechanism for how momentum is left behind during generation. The novelty is in the careful Lagrangian, forcing-aware derivation and the explicit demonstration that the deep return flow is neutralised during forcing, together with the identification and characterisation of the residual dipole after forcing; the limitations are those of the model assumptions (two-dimensionality, absence of rotation and stratification, narrow bandwidth), all of which are acknowledged and briefly discussed.\N\NIn closing, the study's significance lies in clarifying, with a mathematically transparent framework, the fate of atmospheric momentum input during wave growth and its relation to the mean flows associated with surface gravity waves. The results consolidate and extend classical understanding by showing that, in deep water, wave packets do not carry net momentum while a localised, stationary interior flow stores the imparted momentum; they also explain how momentum appears in finite depth through long-wave trapping as waves shoal. The work will be of interest to researchers in water-wave theory, geophysical fluid dynamics, and air-sea interaction, and it provides a solid basis for future generalisations incorporating rotation, stratification, and three-dimensional effects.
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