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Low-Level Atmospheric Flow at the Central North Coast of Brazil

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Abstract

The planetary-boundary-layer (PBL) flow and above is investigated for the central north coast of Brazil, an equatorial region spanning from 8° to 2°S. The daily PBL flow is controlled by vertical entrainment of horizontal momentum from a southerly large-scale flow associated with the Hadley cell, and by a mesoscale pressure gradient force (PGF) created by the differential heating between land and ocean. Near the coast, the flow is from the north-east quadrant comprising a small rotation, probably caused by a weak mesoscale PGF and a weak Coriolis force. Inland it is north-easterly in the morning, but deep mixing during the afternoon brings down momentum from above causing it to become south-easterly. The mesoscale PGF executes a daily 360° rotation at most of the stations. In the afternoon it points to land due to continuous heating of the land, and a sea breeze develops in the presence of the background flow. Once convection dies out, the transfer of horizontal momentum is reduced, and the marine-air layer can flow faster into the continent as a nocturnal jet. As the stable boundary layer grows thicker, this flow tends to be eliminated at the surface. By morning, the mesoscale PGF points north, forcing the inland flow to become south-easterly, while on the coast flow becomes almost easterly. This scenario repeats during dry and wet seasons and can be understood as a consequence of the south–north propagation of an atmospheric circulation resembling a helix with its rotation axis oriented parallel to the shoreline.

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Fig. 1

Source: The reanalysis data used was provided by NCEP/NCAR through the link http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/griddeddata.ncep.reanalysis.derived.pressure.html)

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Source: Comprehensive Large Array-Data Stewardship System (CLASS) from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA))

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq) for the Grants (PDJ n.510159/2010-9 and PQ n.307048/2018-7), and the Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia (INMET) for providing us the surface weather station data and radiosonde data. The authors would also like to thank Mr. Pablo Eli Soares de Oliveira from UFSM for helping us process, organize and store the INMTE data. The insightful comments of the reviewers have substantially improved the work, and the authors acknowledge that.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade Federal do Pampa, Campus Alegrete, Av. Tiarajú, 810, Alegrete, RS, 97546-550, Brazil

    Luiz E. Medeiros & Felipe D. Costa

  2. Divisão de Ciências Atmosféricas, Instituto de Aeronáutica e Espaço, São José dos Campos, SP, 12220-901, Brazil

    Gilberto Fisch, Paulo G. Iriart & Daniel Schuch

  3. Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, RS, 97105-900, Brazil

    Otávio C. Acevedo & Vagner Anabor

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  1. Luiz E. Medeiros
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  2. Gilberto Fisch
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  3. Otávio C. Acevedo
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  4. Felipe D. Costa
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  7. Daniel Schuch
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Correspondence to Luiz E. Medeiros.

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Medeiros, L.E., Fisch, G., Acevedo, O.C. et al. Low-Level Atmospheric Flow at the Central North Coast of Brazil. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 180, 289–317 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-021-00625-1

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