Sensitivity of Offshore Surface Fluxes and Sea Breezes to the Spatial Distribution of Sea-Surface Temperature

• Published in: Boundary-layer meteorology Vol. 166; no. 3; pp. 475 - 502
• Main Authors: Lombardo, Kelly, Sinsky, Eric, Edson, James, Whitney, Michael M., Jia, Yan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.03.2018; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Atmospheric boundary layer; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Atmospheric Sciences; Boundary layer stability; Boundary layers; Breezes; Computer simulation; Datasets; Distribution; Dynamics; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Fluxes; Marine atmospheric boundary layer; Meteorology; Ocean temperature; Offshore; Planetary boundary layer; Potential temperature; Propagation; Research Article; Sea breezes; Sea surface; Sea surface temperature; Sensitivity; Spatial distribution; Stability; Surface fluxes; Surface temperature; Temperature effects; Tropical climate; Tropical environment; Tropical environments; Vertical mixing; Vertical profiles; Surface heat and buoyancy fluxes; Coastal meteorology; Marine atmospheric boundary layer; Sea breeze
• ISSN: 0006-8314; 1573-1472
• DOI: 10.1007/s10546-017-0313-7

A series of numerical sensitivity experiments is performed to quantify the impact of sea-surface temperature (SST) distribution on offshore surface fluxes and simulated sea-breeze dynamics. The SST simulations of two mid-latitude sea-breeze events over coastal New England are performed using a spatially-uniform SST, as well as spatially-varying SST datasets of 32- and 1-km horizontal resolutions. Offshore surface heat and buoyancy fluxes vary in response to the SST distribution. Local sea-breeze circulations are relatively insensitive, with minimal differences in vertical structure and propagation speed among the experiments. The largest thermal perturbations are confined to the lowest 10% of the sea-breeze column due to the relatively high stability of the mid-Atlantic marine atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) suppressing vertical mixing, resulting in the depth of the marine layer remaining unchanged. Minimal impacts on the column-averaged virtual potential temperature and sea-breeze depth translates to small changes in sea-breeze propagation speed. This indicates that the use of datasets with a fine-scale SST may not produce more accurate sea-breeze simulations in highly stable marine ABL regimes, though may prove more beneficial in less stable sub-tropical environments.