A COMPLETE SEA-BREEZE CIRCULATION CELL-DERIVED FROM AIRCRAFT OBSERVATIONS

Using an instrumented aircraft, a complete sea-breeze circulation cell was sampled from its offshore end to the sea-breeze front over land a nd up to a height of approximately 1000 m AMSL. Many of its typical fe atures can be resolved in detail mainly by cross-sectional analysis. T hese are: the diverging onshore flow in the lower layers over the sea, the convergence over land at the sea-breeze front and the connected c ross-frontal circulation, a distinct return flow in the upper layers, the propagation of the seaward end of the cell over water, as well as the propagation of the front over land, the baroclinicity as a driving mechanism of the cell and also budget and frontogenesis terms.