Numerical studies of sea and lake breezes are reviewed. The modelled dependence of sea-breeze and lake-breeze characteristics on the land surface sensible heat flux, ambient geostrophic wind, atmospheric stability and moisture, water body dimensions, terrain height and slope, Coriolis parameter, surface roughness length, and shoreline curvature is discussed. Consensus results on the influence of these geophysical variables on sea and lake breezes are synthesized as well as current gaps in our understanding. A brief history of numerical modelling, an overview of recent high-resolution simulations, and suggestions for future research related to sea and lake breezes are also presented. The results of this survey are intended to be a resource for numerical modelling, coastal air quality, and wind power studies.

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Sea and Lake Breezes: A Review of Numerical Studies

This paper describes results from a large-eddy simulation (LES) model used in an idealized setting to simulate the onset of the sea breeze. As the LES is capable of simulating boundary layer–scale, threedimensional turbulence along with the mesoscale sea-breeze circulation, a parameterization of the planetary boundary layer was unnecessary. The basic experimental design considers a rotating, uniformly stratified, resting atmosphere that is suddenly heated at the surface over the “land” half of the domain. To focus on the simplest nontrivial problem, the diurnal cycle, effects of moisture, interactions with large-scale winds, and coastline curvature were all neglected in this study. The assumption of a straight coastline allows the use of a rectangular computational domain that extends to 50 km on either side of the coast, but only 5 km along the coast, with 100-m grid intervals so that the small-scale turbulent convective eddies together with the mesoscale sea breeze may be accurately computed. Through dimensional analysis of the simulation results, the length and velocity scales characterizing the simulated sea breeze as functions of the externally specified parameters are identified.

https://opensky.ucar.edu:/islandora/object/articles%3A6986/datastream/PDF/view

Large-Eddy Simulation of the Onset of the Sea Breeze

Diurnal evolution of urban circulation and heat island in calm conditions has been studied by means of a 2D-model forced by a prescribed heat flux at ground Numerical experiments performed by varying the ratio s between urban and rural heat fluxes, city half width D and the atmospheric stability N have shown that the difference between urban and rural potential temperature in the mixed layer can be expressed at time t by an analytical expression, ie Where and

Numerical experiments on urban heat island intensity

Sea/land breezes and inland breezes have in common the ‘breeze’ appellation but are essentially different. The land/sea-breeze horizontal extent exceeds 100 km, with the Coriolis effect dominating its dynamics. Conversely, inland breezes are confined between alternating patches of cold and warm surface temperature, over horizontal ranges never exceeding a few kilometres, with negligible Coriolis effect. Both land/sea-breeze and inland-breeze systems are embedded within the planetary boundary layer. Despite their superficial resemblance, however, their physics differs and this article attempts to determine the parameters controlling the transition between the processes driving large-scale land/sea breezes and those driving inland breezes.

Rotunno's linear model of the sea breeze is extended in order to describe the transition from the sea-breeze regime to the inland-breeze regime, especially in terms of scaling laws. The scaling in the sea-breeze regime obtained by Rotunno is recovered. In this regime, the breeze cell tends to have a horizontal extent comparable to the Rossby radius. For the inland-breeze regime previously studied by Anthes, an important contribution of the present work is to take into account the effect of friction. This effect is non-trivial, as it introduces an inner region with depth controlled by friction. We demonstrate this effect by performing an asymptotic analysis over a range of horizontal scales that are smaller than the Rossby radius but still much larger than the planetary boundary-layer depth, hence near-hydrostatic. All the dominant terms of the breeze circulation budget are within the inner layer, where friction and buoyancy dominate the Coriolis effect and the outer-layer terms and determine the breeze-cell shape and intensity. Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological Society

Linear breeze scaling: from large-scale land/sea breezes to mesoscale inland breezes

A quasi-geostrophic mean flow can form the basic state upon which a sea breeze is superimposed; a model is described. With a mean flow perpendicular to the coast the speed of the sea breeze front is shown to be a linear function of the onshore component of the mean flow. When a constant mean flow is introduced the general structure of the sea breeze is unchanged. In particular, for a constant energy input the intensity is also unaltered. In contrast, a shear changes the general qualitative structure but leaves the speed of the front and the intensity of the sea breeze unchanged. These features are consistent with the available potential energy of the system and a constant transfer, per unit area, of this into kinetic energy. Model results and other studies are discussed.

The sea breeze with mean flow

Availability of potential energy in inland convection and in a sea breeze circulation are compared using a formulation of P. C. Manins and J. S. Turner for the convectively mixed atmospheric boundary layer, and a numerical model of a sea breeze. Entrainment processes during the mixed layer growth appear to affect both the convective scale and the mesoscale, decreasing the amount of potential energy available to the convective scale yet increasing the potential energy available at the mesoscale. The kinetic energy content of the sea breeze cell is explained in terms of a constant efficiency for the conversion of available potential energy inside a cell whose horizontal dimension increases in time. Results of numerical experiments indicate that the current value of the temporally integrated buoyancy flux at the ground is the most important parameter for the sea breeze flow. This parameter determines the strength of the flow as well as the inland movement of the sea breeze front.

R. A. Pearson

Papers

Inland convection and energy transfers in a sea breeze model