Abstract
From comparisons of SASS-derived winds with surface truth in the range of low wind speed, it has been indicated that more studies were needed to resolve the characteristics of capillary waves on the water surface microlayer.
For the above reason, a new method for measuring surface tension and viscosity of the layer, based on the properties of capillary waves, was developed as following view points; 1) surface buoy composed of water surface film sampler and reserving box, 2) wave channel equipment for taking photographs of Moiré fringes, and 3) Moiré method to analyze amplitudes and lengths of capillary waves.
Firstly, the new capillary wave method was applied to top water instead of distilled water to check the accuracy, and the satisfactory accuracy was indicated for the optimum wave frequency of 30Hz-70Hz. Nextly, the present method was applied to sea water off the Sagami River mouth. In this paper we would show that more reasonable results than conventional analyzers are given by the capillary wave method.
