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The characteristics of sea fog with different airflow over the Huanghai Sea in boreal spring

Acta Oceanologica Sinica volume 29, pages 3–12 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

Using the observations from ICOADS datasets and contemporaneous NCEP/NCAR reanalysis datasets during 1960–2002, the study classifies the airflows in favor of sea fog over the Huanghai (Yellow) Sea in boreal spring (April–May) with the method of trajectory analysis, and analyzes the changes of proportions of warm and cold sea fogs along different paths of airflow. According to the heat balance equation, we investigate the relationships between the marine meteorological conditions and the proportion of warm and cold sea fog along different airflow paths. The major results are summarized as follows. (1) Sea fogs over the Huanghai Sea in spring are not only warm fog but also cold fog. The proportion of warm fog only accounts for 44% in April, while increases as high as 57% in May. (2) Four primary airflow paths leading to spring sea fog are identified. They are originated from the northwest, east, southeast and southwest of the Huanghai Sea, respectively. The occurrence ratios of the warm sea fog along the east and southeast airflow paths are high of 55% and 70%, while these along the southwest and northwest airflow paths are merely 17.9% and 50%. (3) The key physical processes governing the warm/cold sea fog are heat advection transport, longwave radiation cooling at fog top, solar shortwave warming and latent heat flux between airsea interfaces. (4) The characteristics of sea fog along the four airflow paths relate closely to the conditions of water vapor advection, and the vertical distribution of relative humidity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Tropical and Marine Meteorology, China Meteorological Administration, Guangzhou, 510080, China

    Jian Huang & Huijun Huang

  2. Guy Carpenter Asia-Pacific Climate Impact Centre, School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Xin Wang & Wen Zhou

  3. CAS key laboratory of tropical marine environmental dynamics, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China

    Dongxiao Wang

  4. Department of meteorology, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 262003, China

    Faxiu Zhou

Authors
  1. Jian Huang
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  2. Xin Wang
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  3. Wen Zhou
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  4. Huijun Huang
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  5. Dongxiao Wang
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  6. Faxiu Zhou
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Correspondence to Jian Huang.

Additional information

Foundation item: This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract Nos 40675013 and 40906010; the China Meteorological Administration project for popularizing new techniques under contract No. CMATG2007M23; the scientific and technological planning project from Guangdong Province under contract No. 2006B37202005. The work of Wang Xin is supported by City University of Hong Kong Research Scholarship Enhancement Scheme and the City University of Hong Kong Strategic Research Grants 7002329.

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Huang, J., Wang, X., Zhou, W. et al. The characteristics of sea fog with different airflow over the Huanghai Sea in boreal spring. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 29, 3–12 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-010-0045-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-010-0045-8

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