A Study of the Merritt Island, Florida Sea Breeze Flow Regimes and Their Effect on Surface Heat and Moisture Fluxes
A Study of the Merritt Island, Florida Sea Breeze Flow Regimes and Their Effect on Surface Heat and Moisture Fluxes

Author: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2018-07-17

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 9781722911799

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Data collected during the Convective and Precipitation/Electrification Experiment were analyzed as part of an investigation of the sea breeze in the vicinity of Merritt Island, Florida. Analysis of near-surface divergence fields shows that the classical 24-hour oscillation in divergence over the island due to the direct sea breeze circulation is frequently disrupted and exhibits two distinct modes: the classical sea breeze pattern and deviations from that pattern. A comparison of clear day surface energy fluxes with fluxes on other days indicates that changes in magnitudes were dominated by the presence or absence of clouds. Non-classical sea breeze days tended to lose more available energy in the morning than classical sea breeze days due to earlier development of small cumulus over the island. A composite storm of surface winds, surface energy fluxes, rainfall, and satellite visible data was constructed. A spectral transmittance over the visible wavelengths for the cloud cover resulting from the composite storm was calculated. It is shown that pre-storm transmittances of 0.8 fall to values near 0.1 as the downdraft moves directly over the site. It is also found that under post-composite storm conditions of continuous clear sky days, 3.5 days are required to evaporate back into the atmosphere the latent heat energy lost to the surface by rainfall. Rubes, M. T. and Cooper, H. J. and Smith, E. A. Unspecified Center ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION; MERRITT ISLAND (FL); METEOROLOGICAL PARAMETERS; SEA BREEZE; STORMS (METEOROLOGY); ATMOSPHERIC BOUNDARY LAYER; HEAT FLUX; METEOROLOGY; RAIN; SURFACE ENERGY...

Influence of Earth Surface and Cloud Properties on the South Florida Sea Breeze
Influence of Earth Surface and Cloud Properties on the South Florida Sea Breeze

Author: Patrick T. Gannon

Publisher:

Published: 1978

Total Pages: 100

ISBN-13:

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A two-dimensional numerical sea breeze model that includes radiation and heat budget physics is used to study sea breeze circulations affected by South Florida surface and cloud conditions. Sensitivity experiments show major differences in the intensities and inland penetrations that result from prescribed distributions of surface and cirrus cloud properties. A case study experiment for July 16, 1975, provides a measure of the importance of surface and cumulus cloud properties that were observed or deduced for this one day. Significant differences exist between the model version using a surface heat budget formulation and the version using prescribed thermal forcing. The strength of the sea breeze predicted with the heat budget formulation decreases with increasing initial basic state wind speeds, while the opposite effect occurs with thermal forcing. Soil moisture is the dominant controlling surface property, followed by albedo and thermal inertia. Cirrus clouds can prevent the evolution of the sea breeze when the geometric thickness of cirrus exceeds 2 km. A case study demonstrates the importance of cumulus cloud shielding of the surface from solar radiation. The mesoscale sea breeze convergence zone is seen to evolve adjacent to organized cloud fields, but not necessarily coincident with them. This is an important consideration when sea breeze models are verified with observed cloud fields.