Abstract
During the Intensive Observation Period (IOP) 7 (22 February 1986) of the Genesis of Atlantic Lows Experiment a persistent coastal front was observed along the Carolina coast in the eastern United States. An intensive baroclinic zone, associated with the cold air damming to the east of the Appalachian Mountains, and the warm marine atmospheric boundary layer over the Gulf Stream, resulted in a northeasterly low-level geostrophic wind maximum near the coast.
Two convergence zones were observed, one near the shore and the other near the western edge of the Gulf Stream. The convergence zone near the coastline was relatively weaker than that near the Gulf Stream. The differential surface thermal forcing caused enhanced convergence associated with the frontogenesis, and a meso-low was observed over the offshore front. The terms in the frontogenesis equation are estimated, and the diabatic term is found to be larger than the frontogenetic confluence term along the shore.
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Raman, S., Reddy, N.C. & Niyogi, D.S. Mesoscale Analysis of a Carolina Coastal Front. Boundary-Layer Meteorology 86, 125–145 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1000605030775
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1000605030775