Sea breeze

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

Variability of three-dimensional sea breeze structure in southern France: observations and evaluation of empirical scaling laws

Abstract: . Sea-breeze dynamics in southern France is investigated using an airborne Doppler lidar, a meteorological surface station network and radiosoundings, in the framework of the ESCOMPTE experiment conducted during summer 2001 in order to evaluate the role of thermal circulations on pollutant transport and ventilation. The airborne Doppler lidar WIND contributed to three-dimensional (3-D) mapping of the sea breeze circulation in an unprecedented way. The data allow access to the onshore and offshore sea breeze extents (xsb), and to the sea breeze depth (zsb) and intensity (usb). They also show that the return flow of the sea breeze circulation is very seldom seen in this area due to (i) the presence of a systematic non zero background wind, and (ii) the 3-D structure of the sea breeze caused by the complex coastline shape and topography. A thorough analysis is conducted on the impact of the two main valleys (Rhone and Durance valleys) affecting the sea breeze circulation in the area. Finally, this dataset also allows an evaluation of the existing scaling laws used to derive the sea breeze intensity, depth and horizontal extent. The main results of this study are that (i) latitude, cumulative heating and surface friction are key parameters of the sea breeze dynamics; (ii) in presence of strong synoptic flow, all scaling laws fail in predicting the sea breeze characteristics (the sea breeze depth, however being the most accurately predicted); and (iii) the ratio zsb/usb is approximately constant in the sea breeze flow.

Sea breeze in Mallorca. A numerical study

Abstract: The Spanish island of Mallorca is located almost in the centre of the western Mediterranean. Very often from April to October, and almost every day during the summer, the sea breeze circulation develops. The shape and the topography of the island determine that the main characteristic feature of the sea breeze is the existence of a convergence line in the centre of the island. In this paper we describe the sea breeze circulation. A very simple non-eulerian numerical model allows us to simulate the evolution of the circulation during 24 hours.

Influence of meteorological conditions on summer ozone levels in the central Kanto area of Japan

Abstract: We investigated the influence of meteorological factors that affect ozone in summer using both measurement analysis and numerical simulation. The results show that there is a close relationship between changes in meteorological conditions and variations in ozone concentrations over the central Kanto area. In summer, up to 84% of long-term variations in peak ozone concentrations may be accounted for by changes in the seasonally averaged daily maximum temperatures and seasonally averaged wind speeds. The ozone episodes in the Kanto region are dominated by three major patterns, of which Patterns I and II are regular summertime pressure patterns with a 26% and 16% frequency of occurrence, respectively. A detailed process analysis of ozone formation under urban heat island (UHI) at two areas in the Kanto region – urban and rural area – indicates that ozone formation is mainly controlled by chemistry, dry deposition, vertical transport, and horizontal transport processes. The groundlevel ozone concentrations are enhanced mainly by the vertical mixing of ozone-rich air from aloft, whereas dry deposition process mainly depletes ozone. Horizontal transport and chemistry processes play opposite roles in the net change of ozone concentration between the two areas. The results of numerical simulations also indicate that the sea breeze has significant effects on the ozone accumulation and distribution in the Kanto area. The high ozone was first observed in urban area and then was transported to the rural area by sea breeze. At rural area, the highest ozone concentrations were found in late afternoon, about two hours later in comparison with the urban area.