Thus, the difference is a direct measure of the Stokes' drift due to surface waves. Over part of the time series, this difference was calculated and is compared to the Stokes' drift estimated from wave-wire data in figure 2. The data are both novel and high quality. Four frames 15 minutes apart during strong forcing conditions. Note how the stripes alternate between well-defined and irregular.
North is up.
The vacillations occurred near the end of a gale-force storm in March, 1995. Figure 2 . The agreement is remarkable. Values from times when there were no signs of Langmuir circulation are shown as red crosses. Not the wind, waves, nor mixed layer depths vary significantly on this time scale.