Sea breeze

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

Estimating Wind Energy Potential Offshore in Mediterranean Areas

Abstract: Relatively few studies have been performed on the evaluation of offshore wind resources, and these have been conducted mostly in Northern Europe. In Mediterranean areas the lack of such studies is mainly linked to (1) the difficulty of meteorological monitoring in deeper waters, (2) the complex orography, frequently extending down to the coasts, (3) the sea breeze wind regimes and (4) local winds such as the Bora, Mistral and Sciroc. In the North Adriatic Sea, a shallow basin of the Mediterranean, the first reason is not applicable, but the others are sufficient to make the evaluation of wind speed methods challenging. In this article we estimate the wind climatology at a platform located 15 km offshore of Venice based on 7 years of data and compare it with the wind climatology obtained by five different methods using the long-term data from four coastal meteorological stations, Venezia Tessera, Venezia San Nicolo, Ronchi and Rimini. We discuss the applicability of these methods and find that the WAsP® model of Riso National Laboratory is still the best tool for wind climate estimates. The results of two new methods are promising, but the methods still require some development. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Influence of urban spatial configuration and sea breeze on land surface temperature on summer clear-sky days

Abstract: Understanding the spatiotemporal characteristics of land surface temperature (LST), a physical quantity that greatly contributes to the formation of urban thermal environment, is essential for constructing a sustainable urban environment. This study explores the relationship between urban space, atmospheric conditions, and diurnal change characteristics of LST on summer clear-sky days in an urban area of Osaka Plain using a 10 min LST dataset retrieved from the Japanese geostationary satellite (Himawari-8) data. The principal temporal change patterns forming the diurnal cycle of LST were extracted through a principal component analysis, and their spatial variabilities were investigated through the exploitation of ground-based meteorological observation and land-use data. The result showed two temporal change patterns, identified as the amplitude and phase of the diurnal change, being extracted in different clear-sky days. A hierarchical cluster analysis confirmed that the spatial variations of such patterns corresponded to the sea breeze and urban land-use. Moreover, LST change at daytime was found to be larger in the high-density areas rather than in the low-density areas of low buildings, thereby suggesting the influence of building density on LST at daytime.

Generation of Harmonics by Sea Breeze in Nontidal Water Bodies

Abstract: The sea breeze introduces harmonics of its diurnal cycle into water bodies, which can be notable for strong sea breeze and microtidal and nontidal conditions. The harmonics can be of the same magnitude as those produced by bottom friction and dominate those produced by nonlinear terms in the equations of motion. A closed-form analytic solution of the linearized depth-averaged equations of motion including friction is discussed for the situation of a sea breeze blowing on an idealized one-dimensional basin of constant depth. The solution reveals the generation of odd harmonics introduced by the quadratic wind stress and role of (linearized) friction. Sea-breeze forcing on the idealized basin is numerically modeled, and agreement with the analytic solution is found. The numerical model is then run with quadratic bottom friction and nonlinear terms to compare relative contributions to the generation of harmonics. Harmonics of the water motion are distinguished as forced, or arising from the wind for...

Wind variability in a coastal area (Alfacs Bay, Ebro River delta)

Abstract: . Wind spatial heterogeneity in a coastal area (Alfacs Bay, northwestern Mediterranean Sea) is described using a set of observations and modelling results. Observations in three meteorological stations (during 2012–2013) along the coastline reveal that wind from the N–NW (strongest winds in the region) appears to be affected by the local orography promoting high wind variability on relatively short spatial scales (of the order of few kilometres). On the other hand, sea breezes in late spring and summer also show noticeable differences in both spatial distribution and duration. The importance of wind models' spatial resolution is also assessed, revealing that high resolution (= 3 km) substantially improves the results in comparison to coarse resolution (9 km). The highest-resolution model tested (400 m) also presents noticeable improvements during some events, showing spatial variability not revealed by coarser models. All these models are used to describe and understand the spatial variability of the typical wind events in the region. The results presented in this contribution should be considered on hydrodynamic, ecological and risk management investigations in coastal areas with complex orography.