Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A complete sea-breeze circulation cell derived from aircraft observations

  • Published:
Boundary-Layer Meteorology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Using an instrumented aircraft, a complete sea-breeze circulation cell was sampled from its offshore end to the sea-breeze front over land and up to a height of approximately 1000 m AMSL. Many of its typical features can be resolved in detail mainly by cross-sectional analysis. These are: the diverging onshore flow in the lower layers over the sea the convergence over land at the seabreeze front and the connected cross-frontal circulation, a distinct return flow in the upper layers, the propagation of the seaward end of the cell over water, as well as the propagation of the front over land, the baroclinicity as a driving mechanism of the cell and also budget and frontogenesis terms.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Arritt, R. W.: 1989, ‘Numerical Modelling of the Offshore Extent of Sea Breezes’,Quart. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 115, 547–570.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arritt, R. W.: 1993, ‘Effects of the Large-Scale Flow on Characteristic Features of the Sea Breeze’,J. Appl. Meteorol. 32, 116–225.

    Google Scholar 

  • Estoque, M. A.: 1962, ‘The Sea Breeze as a Function of the Prevailing Synoptic Situation’,J. Atmos. Sci. 19, 244–250.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finkele, K.: 1994,Numerical Simulations and Aircraft Measurements of Sea Breezes, Ph.D. Thesis, Flinders University of South Australia.

  • Finkele, K., Byron-Scott, R. A. D., and Hacker, J. M.: 1994, ‘Processing Airborne Measurements of a Sea-Breeze Evolution for Comparison with a Meso-scale Moder’,Proceedings of the First National AMOS Conference, Adelaide, Australia.

  • Haase, S. P. and Smith, R. K.: 1989, ‘The Numerical Simulation of Atmosphric Gravity Currents. Part II: Environments with Stable Layers’,Geophys. Astrophys. Fluid Dynamics 46, 35–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hacker, J. M., Hartmann, J., Kraus, H., and Schwerdtfeger, P.: 1990, ‘Airborne Measurements of the Structure of Sea-Breeze Fronts in Summer 1988/89’,FIAMS Research Report Vol. 47, Flinders Institute for Atmospheric and Marine Sciences, The Flinders University of South Australia, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, 102 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hacker, J. M., Williams, A. G., and Chambers S. D.: 1993, ‘RAMF User's Manual’,FIAMS Technical Report Vol. 11, Flinders Institute for Atmospheric and Marine Sciences, The Flinders University of South Australia, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holton, J. R.: 1972,An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology, Academic Press, 319 pp.

  • Kraus, H.: 1992, ‘Turbulence Frontogenesis’,Meteorol. Atmos. Phys. 48, 309–315.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kraus, H., Hacker, J. M., and Hartmann, J.: 1990, ‘An Observational Aircraft-Based Study of Sea-Breeze Frontogenesis’,Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 53, 223–265.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuettner, J. P., Hildebrand, P. A. and Clark, T. L.: 1987, ‘Convection Waves: Observations of Gravity Wave Systems over Convectively Active Boundary Layers’,Quart. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 113, 445–467.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, R. K.: 1988, ‘Travelling Waves and Bores in the Lower Atmosphere: The ‘Morning Glory’ and Related Phenomena’,Earth-Science Reviews 25, 267–290.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sha, W., Kawamura, T. and Ueda, H.: 1991, ‘A Numerical Study on Sea/Land Breezes as a Gravity Current: Kelvin-Helmholtz Billows and Inland Penetration of the Sea-Breeze Front’,J. Atmos. Sci. 48, 1649–1665.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sha, W., Kawamura, T., and Ueda, H.: 1993: ‘A Numerical Study of Nocturnal Sea Breezes: Prefrontal Gravity Waves in the Compensating Flow and Inland Penetration of the Sea-Breeze Cutoff Vortex’,J. Atmos. Sci. 50, 1076–1088.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simpson, J. E.: 1987,Gravity Currents: In the Environment and the Laboratory, Ellis Horwood, Chichester, 224 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, A. G. and Hacker J. M.: 1993 ‘Description of Instrumentation and Flights Conducted with FIAMS Cessna 340A Aircraft “EOS”, During the International Experiment TOGA COARE’,Technical Report Vol. 10 Flinders Institute for Atmospheric and Marine Sciences, Flinders University of South Australia, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, Australia, 65 pp.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. Klara Finkele

    Present address: CSIRO Centre for Environmental Mechanics, PO Box 821, 2601, Canberra, ACT, Australia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Flinders Institute for Atmospheric and Marine Sciences, Adelaide, Australia

    Klara Finkele, Jörg M. Hacker & Roland A. D. Byron-Scott

  2. Meteorologisches Institut der Universität Bonn, Germany

    Helmut Kraus

Authors
  1. Klara Finkele
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jörg M. Hacker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Helmut Kraus
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Roland A. D. Byron-Scott
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Finkele, K., Hacker, J.M., Kraus, H. et al. A complete sea-breeze circulation cell derived from aircraft observations. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 73, 299–317 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00711261

Download citation

  • Revised:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00711261

Keywords

Search

Navigation