Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, Volume 42, 2010, Sullivan, pp 19-42.

We discuss the coupling processes between surface gravity waves and adjacent winds and currents in turbulent boundary layers. These processes mediate exchanges of momentum, heat, and gases between the atmosphere and ocean and thus are of global significance for climate. Surface waves grow primarily by pressure-form stress from airflow over the waveforms, and they dissipate in the open sea by wave breaking that injects and stirs momentum, energy, and bubbles into the ocean.

‘There are wholes that have causal and measurable effects that are not reducible to any combination of parts’ (JT).