Sea Breeze Theory and Applications

Abstract

The linearized Boussinesq equations with rotation, viscosity, conduction, and a mean stratification are used to model the sea breeze in two dimensions. The motion is forced by a prescribed surface temperature function. The linear model produces a sea breeze with realistic velocities and spatial dimensions. Hydrostatic solutions are found to differ very little from nonhydrostatic solutions. The only distinguishing feature of the solution at the inertial latitude is an amplitude maximum far from the coastline. Both the phase and the amplitude depend on the mean atmospheric stability. The computed vertical heat fluxes, when summed along the coastlines of the principal land masses, indicate that the sea breeze effect can account for several percent of the globally averaged vertical flux of sensible heat at a height of several hundred meters. The land-sea temperature difference required by the model to create a net onshore flow in opposition to a basic current agrees well with the empirical criterion defined by Biggs and Graves. The nonlinear advection process is studied with a finite-difference model based on a series of overlapping grids. The principal effect of the nonlinear terms is a landward advection oof the sea breeze circulation