Sea breeze

About: Sea breeze is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2544 publications have been published within this topic receiving 55651 citations.

The interaction of trade wind and sea breeze, hawaii

Abstract: Local sea-breeze and land-wind regimes in Hawaii meet and interact with the prevailing trade wind giving rise to cloud lines of distinctive character. These cloud systems are sources of rain and are sufficiently frequent to be important influences in local microclimates. Four different types of interaction are described. The types of interaction are primarily determined by the height and size of mountain barriers. High barriers may split the trade wind into lateral currents flowing around the mountain while low barriers allow the trade wind air to blow over the top of the mountain. Measurements of local surface-pressure gradients and pilot-balloon data taken adjacent to the zones of interaction provide bases for a description of the vertical and horizontal circulations set up by the meeting of trade wind and sea breeze.

Cluster Analysis of Surface Winds in Houston, Texas, and the Impact of Wind Patterns on Ozone

Abstract: The city of Houston, Texas, is near a complex coastline and numerous petrochemical plants, the combination of which plays a large role in Houston’s air pollution events. It has long been known that the thermally driven afternoon onshore flow (sea breeze or gulf breeze) transports ozone-rich air inland. As a way of quantifying the role of the gulf breeze in Houston’s high-ozone events, cluster analysis of hourly averaged surface winds from a regional network of meteorological sensors was performed for 27 summer days of 2000, with the dates coinciding with the Texas Air Quality Study 2000 (TexAQS 2000). Hourly averaged winds were partitioned into 16 independent clusters, or wind patterns, while simultaneously keeping track of the maximum ozone in the network for each hour. Clusters emerged that represented various wind patterns, including thermally driven flows, stagnant winds, and a thunderstorm outflow. All clusters were used to assess which wind patterns were most likely to be coincident with th...

The Patos Lagoon summertime circulation and dynamics

Abstract: The main aspects of the summertime circulation and dynamics of the Patos Lagoon, a system located in southern Brazil and considered as one of the world's largest choked coastal lagoons, are studied through the analysis of time series of wind stress, water level and freshwater discharge, combined with the results of a barotropic circulation model. The longitudinal wind component has been verified as the main driving force, generating a set-up/set-down mechanism of oscillation with the nodal line in the midlagoon area. The period of this oscillation coincides with the passages of frontal systems for this region. The sea breeze acts as a secondary effect, being clearly observed in the northern part of the lagoon. Freshwater discharge is expected to cause variations in water level on the seasonal band and to a lesser degree in the 8–15 day time-scale. The tidal signal is of importance only near the exit to the ocean, being strongly reduced in the interior of the lagoon. Model results suggest a wind set-up momentum balance in the longitudinal direction in the deeper parts of the lagoon; near the margins, the longitudinal momentum balance is mostly of frictional form, with the wind stress being balanced by the bottom friction. In the lateral direction, a geostrophic balance is verified in both regions. The wind forced circulation is characterized by the presence of several cells with downwind velocity near the margins and upwind return flow occurring in the central areas.