On 12 November 2014, during a mild Bora wind event, the area around the ISMAR oceanographic tower experienced for slightly more than two minutes a tremendous downpour. This changed completely the aspect of the sea surface, practically cancelling all the short waves that are responsible for most of the sea surface drag, and making the long waves more flat and round with a practical absence of white-caps. Compare the videos below. The data recorded during the event, combined with the visual evidence, lead to basic hints on the wind-waves interactions at the base of the wind wave generation process. Luigi Cavaleri luigi.cavaleri@ismar.cnr.it.
