Sea breeze

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

A Numerical Model of the Sea-Breeze Phenomenon over a Lake or Gulf

Abstract: A two-dimensional primitive equation model is constructed and used to investigate the circulations induced by differential heating in the vicinity of a land-locked semi-infinite body of water. The semi-empirical boundary-layer formulation of Clarke is used with an expanding σ grid of 15 vertical levels. Surface temperature is computed by means of a heat-flux balance equation and a radiation condition is used at the lateral boundaries. For purposes of comparison, one run was also made with reflective boundary conditions and it was found that the two solutions differ significantly only when the sea-breeze front is in the vicinity of a lateral boundary. The model reproduces the vast sea breezes of Australia, some of which have been observed to penetrate distances of 200–300 km inland. This feature of the model is attributed to the detailed boundary-layer formulation, in which the momentum and heat exchange coefficients are expressed as functions of stability and wind shear at all levels, and also to...

Idealized WRF model sensitivity simulations of sea breeze types and their effects on offshore windfields

Abstract: . The behaviour and characteristics of the marine component of sea breeze cells have received little attention relative to their onshore counterparts. Yet there is a growing interest and dependence on the offshore wind climate from, for example, a wind energy perspective. Using idealized model experiments, we investigate the sea breeze circulation at scales which approximate to those of the southern North Sea, a region of major ongoing offshore wind farm development. We also contrast the scales and characteristics of the pure and the little known corkscrew and backdoor sea breeze types, where the type is pre-defined by the orientation of the synoptic scale flow relative to the shoreline. We find, crucially, that pure sea breezes, in contrast to corkscrew and backdoor types, can lead to substantial wind speed reductions offshore and that the addition of a second eastern coastline emphasises this effect through generation of offshore "calm zones". The offshore extent of all sea breeze types is found to be sensitive to both the influence of Coriolis acceleration and to the boundary layer scheme selected. These extents range, for example for a pure sea breeze produced in a 2 m s−1 offshore gradient wind, from 0 km to 21 km between the Mellor-Yamada-Nakanishi-Niino and the Yonsei State University schemes respectively. The corkscrew type restricts the development of a backdoor sea breeze on the opposite coast and is also capable of traversing a 100 km offshore domain even under high along-shore gradient wind speed (>15 m s−1) conditions. Realistic variations in sea surface skin temperature and initializing vertical thermodynamic profile do not significantly alter the resulting circulation, though the strengths of the simulated sea breezes are modulated if the effective land-sea thermal contrast is altered. We highlight how sea breeze impacts on circulation need to be considered in order to improve the accuracy of both assessments of the offshore wind energy climate and forecasts of wind energy output.

The Height of the Planetary Boundary Layer and the Production of Circulation in a Sea Breeze Model

Abstract: A two-dimensional mesoscale model is applied to study the evolution of a strong sea breeze on a stagnant base state. In contrast to previous studies, this paper considers the relationship of the planetary boundary layer (PBL), the thermodynamic structure and the vertical circulation associated with the sea breeze in detail. The development of the sea breeze circulation is studied quantitatively using the circulation theorem. The circulation in the vertical plane normal to the coast develops as a result of the solenoid term. The vertical diffusion of momentum acts as the most important brake on the developing circulation in agreement with previous theoretical results. The Coriolis term is small until 6 h after the beating cycle. Late in the cycle, however, it reaches a value of 45% that of the solenoid term. Horizontal and vertical advective effects are small. Under zero geostrophic wind conditions, the return flow occurs entirely above the PBL. Therefore, neutrally buoyant pollutants emitted at t...