| The mechanics of rip currents are complex, involving interactions between waves, currents, water levels and bathymetry that pose particular challenges for numerical modeling. Horizontal turbulent diffusion in a rip system is difficult to measure using dye dilution or surfzone drifters, as shown by the range of published values for the horizontal diffusion coefficient. Here, we studied the effects of horizontal mixing on wave–current interactions by testing several diffusivity estimates in a fully coupled 3D wave–current model run at two different spatial resolutions. Published results using very low diffusion have found that near the shore the wave rays converge towards the rip channel because of refraction by the currents. We showed that this process is... |
