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A climatological study of the influence of synoptic-scale flows on sea breeze evolution in the Bay of Alicante (Spain)

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Abstract

The focus of this study is on sea breeze (SB) characteristics during May and August in the Bay of Alicante (south-eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, IP, Spain) for the period 2000–2005 in relation to dominating synoptic-scale winds. A dataset containing 292 SB events was objectively constructed to study the impact of the daily synoptic winds at 850 hPa on the main characteristics of SBs. The winds were used to designate three major synoptic-scale regimes: offshore, onshore, and coast-parallel flows. The SB features examined include mean lag of the SB passage, wind speed and direction at the time of onset, mean lag of SB cessation, mean duration of SB, mean maximum velocity, and inland propagation of SB. Some of the characteristics had not been previously considered in the literature. It is found that in comparison with onshore synoptic flows, offshore favors the delayed arrival and termination of SBs, resulting in a longer mean duration. Further, they produce the most intense passages, cause a more frequent southeasterly component, and result in a higher SB gust speed and shorter mean inland penetration. Results from coast-parallel flows are also presented. The strength of the large-scale flows plays a major role upon SB parameters, which essentially support other numerical modeling results.

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Acknowledgements

The Fundacion CEAm is financed by the Generalitat Valenciana and BANCAIXA. This research has been undertaken in the frame of the CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 Programme (GRACCIE project). The study was supproted by Spain’s Education and Science Ministry (MEC) project IPIBEX (CGL2005-07664-C02-01). The authors would like to thank the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis project for providing the upper air observations. Comments on an earlier version of this paper from anonymous reviewers are greatly appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The CEAM Foundation (Fundación Centro de Estudios Ambientales del Mediterráneo), Parque Tecnológico, Charles R. Darwin 14, 46980, Paterna, Valencia, Spain

    C. Azorin-Molina

  2. Group of Climatology, University of Barcelona, Montalegre 6, 08001, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

    C. Azorin-Molina

  3. Regional Climate Group, Department of Earth Sciences, Göteborg University, 405 30, Göteborg, Sweden

    D. Chen

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Azorin-Molina, C., Chen, D. A climatological study of the influence of synoptic-scale flows on sea breeze evolution in the Bay of Alicante (Spain). Theor Appl Climatol 96, 249–260 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-008-0028-2

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