Rm. Banta et al., EVOLUTION OF THE MONTEREY BAY SEA-BREEZE LAYER AS OBSERVED BY PULSED DOPPLER LIDAR, Journal of the atmospheric sciences, 50(24), 1993, pp. 3959-3982
As Part of the Land/Sea Breeze Experiment (LASBEX) to study the sea br
eeze at Monterey Bay, the pulsed Doppler lidar of the NOAA / ERL Wave
Propagation Laboratory Performed vertical and nearly horizontal scans
of the developing sea breeze on 12 days. Analyses of Doppler velocity
data from these scans revealed details on the growth of the sea-breeze
layer and on the horizontal variability of the sea breeze resulting f
rom inland topography. Two days were selected for study when the ambie
nt flow was offshore, because the onshore flow of the sea breeze was e
asy to discern from the background flow. Sequences of vertical cross s
ections taken perpendicular to the coast showed the beginnings of the
sea breeze beneath the land breeze at the coast and the subsequent gro
wth of the sea-breeze layer horizontally and vertically. On one of the
days a transient precursor-a ''minor sea breeze''-appeared and disapp
eared before the main sea breeze began in midmorning. Other issues tha
t the lidar was well suited to study were the compensating return flow
, the Coriolis effect, the effects of topography, and the growth of th
e dimensions of the sea-breeze layer. No return flow above the sea bre
eze and no Coriolis turning of the sea-breeze flow were found even thr
ough the late afternoon hours. Terrain effects included an asymmetry i
n the development of the sea breeze over water as opposed to over land
and the persistence into the late morning hours of southeasterly flow
from the Salinas River valley toward the vicinity of the lidar. Verti
cal and horizontal dimensions of the sea-breeze layer were determined
from lidar vertical cross sections. From these, length-to-width aspect
ratios were calculated, which were then compared with aspect ratios d
erived from recent analytical models. The theoretical values compared
poorly with the observed values, most likely because the complicating
effects of topography and stability were not accounted for in the theo
retical models.