Simulations Of The Land And Sea Breezes On The Us West Coast

Almost half the U.S. population lives along the coast. In another 20 years this population is expected to more than double in size. The unique weather and climate of the coastal zone, circulating pollutants, altering storms, changing temperature, and moving coastal currents affect air pollution and disaster preparedness, ocean pollution, and safeguarding near-shore ecosystems. Activities in commerce, industry, transportation, freshwater supply, safety, recreation, and national defense also are affected. The research community engaged in studies of coastal meteorology in recent years has made significant advancements in describing and predicting atmospheric properties along coasts. Coastal Meteorology reviews this progress and recommends research that would increase the value and application of what is known today.

The mesoscale sea breeze has important consequences for many densely populated coastal environments, including convection initiation, aviation safety, and air quality. The sea breeze characteristics before and after sunset are markedly different (Sha et al 1993). A gravity current will form during the early afternoon due to the relatively large density difference between the land and sea air. During the afternoon, as the lighter land air is forced upward by the cooler dense sea air, Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) billows often form along the interface, as well as thin regions of turbulent rising air, playing a crucial role in the mixing process (Simpson 1994). After sunset, the frontal zone expands as longwave radiation cools the surface which reduces vertical mixing. With further inland penetration, the sea breeze encounters increasingly stable air near the ground, resulting in the formation of an undular bore or cutoff vortex (Sha et al. 1993). It has been demonstrated that large-scale winds have profound effects on both the strength and inland penetration of sea breezes (Arritt 1993, among others). In general, offshore flow results in a sharper frontal discontinuity and less inland penetration, while onshore flow produces weaker fronts which may penetrate further inland. Most sea breeze studies have focused on its more dramatic daytime properties near the coast whereas inland nocturnal sea breezes have received much less attention. The reason for this neglect is a lack of good observational data in the boundary layer. Sha et al. (1991) note the necessity of high resolution data to capture the finer structures of the sea breeze. A unique opportunity to examine the nocturnal sea breeze became available at the Savannah River Site (SRS, located roughly 150 km from the Atlantic Ocean in southwestern South Carolina) during the Stable Boundary Layer Experiment (STABLE), 12-17 April, 1988. (Abstract Truncated).

The sea breeze affects our lives in many ways. It controls our local weather, not only on the coast but also in many districts inland. Air pollution and smog, also the distribution of airborne insect pests and the spread of pollen are all controlled by the sea breeze. In the world of sport it is important to glider pilots, sailors and surfers, and balloonists. In the book we see how radar, lidar and satellite photography have helped to forecast and map sea breezes and the all-important 'sea-breeze front'. The book ends with a description of laboratory experiments mostly carried out by the author and his co-workers, and a simple summary of theoretical models. The book will be welcomed by those researching in the subject but will also be valuable to the general reader who is interested in local weather and the natural environment.

Urban Climates is the first full synthesis of modern scientific and applied research on urban climates. The book begins with an outline of what constitutes an urban ecosystem. It develops a comprehensive terminology for the subject using scale and surface classification as key constructs. It explains the physical principles governing the creation of distinct urban climates, such as airflow around buildings, the heat island, precipitation modification and air pollution, and it then illustrates how this knowledge can be applied to moderate the undesirable consequences of urban development and help create more sustainable and resilient cities. With urban climate science now a fully-fledged field, this timely book fulfills the need to bring together the disparate parts of climate research on cities into a coherent framework. It is an ideal resource for students and researchers in fields such as climatology, urban hydrology, air quality, environmental engineering and urban design.