PRELIMINARY SEA-BREEZE STUDIES OVER BATHURST AND MELVILLE ISLANDS, NORTHERN AUSTRALIA, AS PART OF THE ISLAND THUNDERSTORM EXPERIMENT (ITEX)

The ''maritime continent'' area to the north of Australia is one of th ree major global centres of tropical convective activity and has a fun damental role in the general circulation of the atmosphere. Tropical c onvection within this region is dominated by island thunderstorm activ ity which is strongly diurnally modulated, is deep and is geographical ly fixed. The storms over Bathurst and Melville Islands (11.5-degrees- S, 131-degrees-E) are representative of island thunderstorms that occu r throughout the maritime continent and are believed to be primarily a response to sea breeze convergence. In this paper, we produce an indi cative climatology of the Melville and Bathurst Island sea breeze (obt ained during a three week period of the 1988 transition season), and w e examine the surface patterns of island-scale convergence and diverge nce, especially in relation to the diurnal modulation of island thunde rstorm activity. These observations are placed in the context of the b road-scale environment and the relevant surface energy balance and rad iation regimes.