A consistent phase-averaged model of the interactions between surface gravity waves and currents
Abstract
We formulate a model of the two-way interactions between surface gravity waves and ocean currents. The model couples the transport of wave action in the four-dimensional (horizontal) position--wavevector phase space with the Craik--Leibovich system for the currents. Coupling is via the Doppler shift in the dispersion relation governing action transport, and wave pseudomomentum in the Craik--Leibovich system. The velocity in the Doppler shift is a vertical integral of the Lagrangian mean velocity of the currents, with a weight that is consistent with the vertical structure of the pseudomomentum. This consistency ensures conservation of momentum and energy in the coupled wave--current system. The conservation properties of the wave--current model stem from an underlying variational structure. We derive this structure from that of the rotating Euler equations for an incompressible fluid with free surface by introducing a Lagrangian wave--mean decomposition, making simplifying approximations, and Whitham averaging. We apply the wave--current model to the problem of generation of inertial oscillations by surface waves originally considered by Hasselmann.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2602.21976,
title = {A consistent phase-averaged model of the interactions between surface gravity waves and currents},
author = {Jacques Vanneste and William R. Young},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.21976},
year = {2026}
}