Sea breeze

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

Formulation of an Index for Sea Breezes in Opposing Winds

Abstract: A scaling analysis is conducted to explore the dependence of sea-breeze speed and inland occurrence in the presence of opposing winds on a set of dynamical parameters. The overall aim of the analysis is to develop an index for sea-breeze occurrence in the face of opposing winds, similar to the Biggs and Graves lake-breeze index. Most studies separate sea-breeze speed and sea-breeze inland occurrence or, at best, link the two in linear analyses. This work analyzes the output of a nonlinear numerical mesoscale model ( in idealized simulations) using scaling methods commonly applied in observational studies. It is found that the scaled sea-breeze speed, in response to increasing magnitude of opposing wind, shows two distinct phases: a phase of increasing speed while the sea breeze progresses inland and a phase of sharply decreasing speed when the sea breeze is no longer detected inland. The analysis also allows the development of an index for sea-breeze inland occurrence. This index is an improvement over existing analyses through the use of nonlinear scaling and the use of surface heat flux as opposed to simpler land-sea temperature contrasts.

Urban effects of Chennai on sea breeze induced convection and precipitation

Abstract: Doppler radar derived wind speed and direction profiles showed a well developed sea breeze circulation over the Chennai, India region on 28 June, 2003. Rainfall totals in excess of 100 mm resulted from convection along the sea breeze front. Inland propagation of the sea breeze front was observed in radar reflectivity imagery. High-resolution MM5 simulations were used to investigate the influence of Chennai urban land use on sea breeze initiated convection and precipitation. A comparison of observed and simulated 10m wind speed and direction over Chennai showed that the model was able to simulate the timing and strength of the sea breeze. Urban effects are shown to increase the near surface air temperature over Chennai by 3.0K during the early morning hours. The larger surface temperature gradient along the coast due to urban effects increased onshore flow by 4.0m s−1. Model sensitivity study revealed that precipitation totals were enhanced by 25mm over a large region 150 km west of Chennai due to urban effects. Deficiency in model physics related to night-time forecasts are addressed.

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.

Evaluation of the High-Resolution Model Forecasts over the Taiwan Area during GIMEX

Abstract: During the 2001 Green Island Mesoscale Experiment (GIMEX), the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–NCAR Mesoscale Model (MM5) was run at a horizontal resolution of 5 km twice a day and forced by initial and boundary conditions from the operational models of the Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan. The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the performance of the surface forecasts of the high-resolution numerical model and to verify quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs) over Taiwan Island within the 2-month period. The major errors in the forecasts are surface warm and dry biases. The model also tends to predict a stronger surface wind speed and an inland wind component, which suggest that the model overpredicted the sea breeze, a result that is consistent with the surface warm bias. The underprediction of the precipitation and poor skill scores are possibly due to the inadequate description of the humidity in the initial condition, and a spinup problem due to the steep Central Mountain...