Coastal Meteorology A Review of the State of the Science (1992) / Chapter Skim
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3. Thermally Driven Effects
3. Thermally Driven Effects
Pages 19-30
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From page 19... ...
Even less well understood are systems present over the coastal ice-land boundary. As an example, in arctic regions, offshore katabatic winds are believed to play a key role in forming and altering polynyas and leads in coastal ice sheets.
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From page 20... ...
During lighter synoptic wind regimes, perturbations induced by the coastal discontinuity are often detectable but may not always result in a coherent recirculating wind system. The effects of the LSBS are many, including significantly altering the direction and speed of the ABL winds; influencing low-level stratiform and cumuliform clouds; initiating, suppressing, and modifying precipitating convective storms; recirculating and trapping pollutants released in or becoming entrained into the circulation; perturbing regional mixing depths; and creating strong near-shore temperature, moisture, and refractive index gradients.
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From page 21... ...
Cumulus suppression in subsiding regions of the sea breeze cell has long been noted in satellite imagery. Under very light wind conditions, cumulus growth is enhanced within the sea breeze frontal zone updrafts.
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From page 22... ...
22 .g / god)
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From page 24... ...
In addition to the primary east and west coast sea breezes formed by the contrast between the Florida peninsula and surrounding ocean, numerous lakes, surface land use inhomogeneities, estuaries, and islands perturb the mesoscale flow. The convective response is more complex than suggested by earlier sea breeze thunderstorm studies.
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From page 25... ...
to predict potential sea breeze occurrences. The character of the LSBS is controlled by a variety of factors, including land-sea surface temperature differences; latitude and day of the year; the synoptic wind and its orientation to the shoreline; the thermal stability of the lowest 200 to 300 mb of the atmosphere; patterns of land use and soil moisture; surface solar radiation as affected by haze, smoke, stratiform, and convective cloudiness; and the geometry of the shoreline and complexity of the surrounding terrain.
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From page 26... ...
Observational and modeling studies need to be extended to coastal circulations occurring with nonhomogeneous and nonstationary synoptic environments, irregular shorelines and complex topography, and heterogeneous land use or land characteristics and soil moisture. Additional modeling challenges include accounting for the advection of middle- and upper-level clouds through the domain; changes in soil moisture; dynamic feedback between the LSBS and deep convective storms; and turbidity due to regional smoke, pollution, fog, and haze.
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From page 27... ...
Carolina coastal fronts tend to form within the boundary layer temperature gradient produced by differential heating of air across the margin of the Gulf Stream. This process has been studied by Riordan (1990)
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From page 28... ...
Ice shelves determine the capability of the fast-flowing internal ice streams associated with marine ice sheets to disperse the glacier ice rapidly into the surrounding ocean. Marine ice sheets are characterized by being grounded on beds well below sea level.
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From page 29... ...
To spur progress we recommend the following: · Observational and modeling studies of the LSBS should be extended to cover the entire diurnal cycle, with emphasis on improving knowledge of offshore regions, the morphology and dynamics of the land breeze, and the formation and breakdown of the sea breeze front. · Remote sensing techniques and fine-mesh mesoscale numerical models should be applied to better understand the finer-scale, three-dimensional structure of the sea breeze front, its associated mesoscale vertical motions, and the development of internal boundary layers above complex coastlines and heterogeneous surfaces.
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From page 30... ...
· Interactions between the atmosphere and sea ice on the mesoscale in the coastal zone should be examined.
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