Showing papers on "Sea breeze published in 1973"

Atmospheric and Oceanic Flow Problems Introduced By Islands

Abstract: Publisher Summary The chapter describes the properties of the various atmospheric and oceanic flow configurations introduced by several islands. Islands act as obstacles to the prevailing winds and ocean currents. Because of differential heating of the land and the surrounding water masses, islands generate local circulations known as the land and sea breezes. Bounded by the contours of islands from within and the contours of continents from without, oceans form multiply connected regions. The interchange of energy (heat), momentum, and moisture between air and sea combines with the above-mentioned features of islands to produce a variety of mesoscale atmospheric and oceanic circulations. The nature of flow around an island is also influenced by several other factors such as the island's shape and size, its geographic location and relief, proximity of other landmasses (continents and/or other islands), stratification of the atmosphere, and nature of the prevailing winds and ocean currents. Both the microscale and mesoscale perturbations are considered, and their significance to phenomena on the global (planetary) scale are discussed in the chapter. Atmospheric flow patterns introduced by islands (nonconvective effects), atmospheric circulations generated by heated islands, oceanic circulations introduced by islands, and significance of studies of atmospheric and oceanic flow problem introduce by islands are also described in the chapter. The chapter also presents recent experiments in tropical island meteorology. These programs included meteorological and oceanographic observations over two island regions in the tropics using conventional surface techniques and observational systems aboard aircraft, earth satellites, and ships. These experiments are called the Line Islands Experiment (LIE) and the Barbados Oceanographic and Meteorological Experiment (BOMEX).

A Study of an Oregon Sea Breeze Event

Abstract: A series of meteorological observations including aircraft, pilot balloon (pibal), rawinsonde, surface buoy, and special land-based surface observations was taken on 23–24 August 1972, on the central Oregon coast, to investigate the mesoscale thermal and kinematic responses of the lowest 4 km of the atmosphere during a sea breeze event. A description of those field observations is given. Vertical cross sections of the wind field on a line perpendicular to the coast, extending 60 km inland from data obtained at three pibal stations, are presented and discussed. Time sections of the wind field and temperature fields at the coast are discussed. Mesoscale features are presented and related to prevailing synoptic-scale changes occurring aloft during the observational period. The sea breeze event on 23 August exhibited the following important characteristics: 1) a sea breeze front, distinguishable in the zonal wind field, which penetrated more than 60 km inland; 2) a distinct wind maximum which followe...

Properties of the Sea Breeze Front as Shown by a Numerical Model

Abstract: A simple model of the sea breeze is integrated numerically. If the total beat input into the air is kept constant, the speed of the sea breeze front is found to be independent of the vertical distribution of the temperature change, the stability of the atmosphere, and the Coriolis parameter. The speed V of the front is shown to increase as the square root of the vertically integrated change in the buoyancy of the air. This is a type of Froude-number relationship with V2=k∫ohg(θ′/θ0)dz. After about a half-pendulum day, this front decreases in intensity and becomes slower. The addition of drag and diffusion significantly alters the velocity and temperature structure of the sea breeze but only decreases slightly the speed of the front.

Sea breeze and coastal processes

Abstract: A diurnal coastal air circulation characterized by alternate sea and land breezes constitutes an important yet poorly understood form of energy supply for nearshore and coastal processes in a number of tropical and subtropical coasts. Although a considerable amount of literature has been accumulated on the characteristics of this mesoscale meteorological phenomenon, little attention has been given to the mechanism of coupling with waves, currents, and beach topography. Owing to the generally modest strength of winds in a sea breeze system, there is a tendency to discount its effects on the dynamic response of the coastal processes. The wind speed in a sea breeze is generally on the order of 5 m/sec, but speeds as high as 10 m/sec or those approaching storm intensity are not uncommon [Defant, 1951]. In areas where the sea breeze prevails for many months of the year, the cumulative effect of its winds, albeit modest, on coastal processes should reach a significant extent.

Breezes along the Tanzanian east coast

Abstract: At the Tanzanian east coast the prevailing winds of the general circulation exhibit seasonal changes in direction in a kind of monsoonal system. The sea and land breezes, which are limited here to diurnal modifications of the general winds, therefore also vary with the seasons. During the northeast monsoon a sea breeze trend prevails most of the time, while in the southeast monsoon season the main trend is from the land. Only during the intermediate periods between the monsoons a diurnal reversal of sea and land breezes develops regularly. The effects of these winds, especially the sea breeze, on the physiological temperature conditions near the coast are of considerable importance. A decrease of the physiological temperature is produced by the advection of cool air, and a further reduction of thermal stress is provided by the improved air ventilation related to the higher wind velocities of the breezes. Since all impressions of physiological temperature are subjective, it is difficult to express these influences quantitatively. However, estimates indicate that the old adage that “the winter in the tropics occurs at night” is no longer valid at the Tanzanian coast when the physiological temperature is considered, because the seasonal differences are larger than the diurnal variations.

Dynamics of the Sea Breeze in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer: A Case Study of the Free Convection Regime

Abstract: Simultaneous measurements of temperature and wind profiles in the surface boundary layer (below 10-m elevation over a beach and below 100-m elevation over an inland site) under the effect of the sea breeze were made near Fort Walton Beach, Fla. We found that the sea breeze in the atmospheric boundary layer is in the free convection regime and that observed sea-breeze wind and temperature profiles behave according to minus one-third power laws. These experiments also substantiate evidence that the Prandtl-Obukhov-Priestley prediction of the free convection regime is a valid one under appropriate atmospheric conditions.