Relationship between Three-Dimensional Radiation Stress and Vortex-Force Representations

In numerical ocean models, the effect of waves on currents is usually expressed by either vortex-force or radiation stress representations. In this paper, the differences and similarities between those two representations are investigated in detail in conditions of both conservative and nonconservative waves. In addition, comparisons between different sets of equations of mean motion that apply different representations of wave-induced forcing terms are included. The comparisons are useful for selecting a suitable numerical ocean model to simulate the mean current in conditions of waves combined with currents.