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A Numerical Study of a Sea Breeze at Fuerteventura Island, Canary Islands, Spain

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Abstract

The genesis and evolution of a sea-breeze front associated with a shallow convection episode at Fuerteventura Island (Canaries archipelago) are investigated using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) numerical model. Three local and two non-local planetary boundary layer (PBL) parametrization schemes are used, and results of the numerical simulations are compared with observations from the local meteorological surface station network. Statistical analysis shows a good agreement between simulations and measurements, in particular for the 2-m temperature. These results are used in choosing the final PBL scheme and its coupled surface-layer scheme, which is used to simulate the daytime period of the sea-breeze development and weakening. During this episode, a sea-breeze front moved inland against a prevailing offshore flow 3 h after sunrise, colliding with a downslope flow near the centre of the island. The convergence of both flows from opposing directions produced a strong updraft, forming shallow convection a few hours later.

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Notes

  1. European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (2009): ERA-Interim Project. Research Data Archive at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Computational and Information Systems Laboratory. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.5065/D6CR5RD9. Accessed† 29 May 2017.

  2. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Ocean Ecology Laboratory, Ocean Biology Processing Group. Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Aqua Sea Surface Temperature Data; 2014 Reprocessing. NASA OB. DAAC, Greenbelt, MD, USA. http://dx.doi.org/10.5067/AQUA/MODIS/L3B/SST/2014. Accessed on 23 May 2017.

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Acknowledgements

This article is a publication of the Unidad Océano y Clima of the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, a R&D&i CSIC‐associate unit. This research has been supported by RIS-3 PO Feder Canarias through project BOUNDARY (ProID2017010083). All plots where created by NCAR Command Language (NCL)(The NCAR Command Language (Version 6.6.2) [Software]. 2019. Boulder, Colorado: UCAR/NCAR/CISL/TDD. http://dx.doi.org/10.5065/D6WD3XH5). The authors also thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments, which helped to improve this article.

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  1. Unidad de Océano y Clima, Instituto de Oceanografía y Cambio Global, IOCAG, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, ULPGC, Unidad Asociada ULPGC‐CSIC, 35017, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

    Luis Cana, Diana Grisolía-Santos & Alonso Hernández-Guerra

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  1. Luis Cana
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  3. Alonso Hernández-Guerra
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Correspondence to Luis Cana.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Table 5.

Table 5 Mathematical formulations of the statistical indexes used for wind speed, wind direction and 2-m temperature
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Cana, L., Grisolía-Santos, D. & Hernández-Guerra, A. A Numerical Study of a Sea Breeze at Fuerteventura Island, Canary Islands, Spain. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 175, 277–296 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-020-00506-z

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