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

Patrick T. Gannon (Sr.)

ene 1978 · Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Environmental Research Laboratories

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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.