The calculation of a sea‐breeze circulation in terms of the differential heating across the coast line. Theory of air flow over a heated land mass. The effects of a large island upon the trade‐wind air stream

Abstract

The above three papers were read on 16 November 1955 DR. JOANNE S. MALxcus (partly communicated) : The papers of Smith (1955) and Pearce (1955) in the July issue of the Quarterly Journal are significant milestones in the investigation of air motions caused by differential heating. The sea-breeze problem, not long ago regarded as enormously diffcult and complex, has made rapid strides in the years since the war. While it would be naive to declare that any problem in meteorology has been ' solved,' at least in this one many of the important theoretical questions have been framed, and physical models now stand available for critical observational test. T o aid in deriving the greatest value from these recent contributions, a few remarks will be made here comparing the two approaches, both with one another and with previous treatments. (a) The relation between the work of Smith (1955) and that of M a l k~ and Stern (Z953)The latter authors studied the flow over a heated island with a prevailing wind and mnsidered only the quasi-steady situation expected near the time of maximum land-sea temperature excess, Smith treats the time-dependent evolution of the motions when the air mass is initially at rest. Actually, it is readily shown that each of these situations is described by a special case of a more general differential equation. This equation is derived by including a term u, 3/3x with the accelerational terms in Smith's equations of motion and modif9ng his definition of the heating function, H, to read : 37 3 7 . 37, H ( x , y , z , t ) = -+ U , -+ w -at 3X 32where uo is the prevailing geostrophic wind. The x-axis is chosen along uo and ug does not vary in space or time; r0 and 7 are reciprocals of the undisturbed and disturbed potential temperature

Mesoscale Structure of Trade Wind Convection over Puerto Rico: Composite Observations and Numerical Simulation

“…The composite storm displacement is thus westward at ≈10 km h −1 . The growth of the heated convective layer over the southern mountains and western plains is a key factor controlling the potential for convection as outlined earlier by Pearce et al (1956). The Mayaguez sea breeze is analyzed for the composite group in Fig.…”

“…Aircraft measurements have been collected around Puerto Rico during trade wind conditions (Malkus 1955) and a symmetric orographic-convection cell with ascent over the island and compensating subsidence in a surrounding ring was found. A moisture budget was proposed for the aircraft cross-section, and the effects of vertical motions and ABL heating imposed on the air stream in its passage over the island were outlined in the context of water vapour transport, cloud structure and seabreeze development (Pearce et al 1956). The mesoscale circulation plays a significant role in the formation of afternoon thunderstorms.…”

Topographic Effects on the Tropical Land and Sea Breeze

“…This circulation plays a role in many atmospheric and oceanic phenomena in coastal areas, including thunderstorm initiation, the modulation of air pollution and fog, and the driving of wind-forced ocean currents. As such, the sea breeze has been studied extensively from a number of perspectives, including observational (Fisher 1960;Davis et al 1889;Finkele et al 1995;Miller et al 2003;Puygrenier et al 2005), numerical (Pearce 1955;Pearce et al 1956;Estoque 1961;Fisher 1961;Antonelli and Rotunno 2007;Fovell 2005;Zhang et al 2005), analytical (Jeffreys 1922;Haurwitz 1947;Schmidt 1947;Pierson 1950;Defant 1951, 658-672;Walsh 1974;Drobinski and Dubos 2009), and laboratory studies (Simpson 1997;Cenedese et al 2000;Hara et al 2009). Recent reviews are given by Miller et al (2003) and Crosman and Horel (2010).…”