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
DOWNLOAD EBOOKData 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...