Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Title

Proceedings of SPIE - the International Society for Optical Engineering

Abstract

An atmospheric mesoscale numerical model has been developed and applied to the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL) in the vicinity of sharp sea-surface temperature (SST) gradients. The Gulf Stream offshore ofEast Central Florida near Cape Canaveral is the region of interest. The model equations which govern atmospheric behavior are based on the basic conservation laws ofmass, momentum, and energy. A "primitive" equation formulation is used to produce preliminary predictions ofhorizontal velocity, potential temperature, and water vapor. The hydrostatic approximation is applied to the vertical momentum conservation equation and the anelastic form ofthe continuity equation is used to approximate mass conservation. Surface fluxes ofmomentum, heat, and moisture are estimated using high-resolution SST data obtained in nearreal time from the AVHRR infrared instrument. Interaction ofthe boundary layer flow with the nearby Central Florida peninsula is simulated by inducing a diurnal seabreeze circulation across the coastline. It is found through a series of simulations that the distribution of sea-surface temperatures influences the boundary layer flow field -especially over the region ofthe Gulf Stream front and the low level convergence field, which may be an important factor for initiating convective precipitation over the land-water margin and Gulf Stream. The importance ofthe air-sea or air-land interfaces are thus fully recognized as being crucial to parameterize via remote sensing data in order to proceed with further model developments ofthe newly developed sea-breeze model. Further examination ofmethods for estimating surface temperatures of the water and land as well as inclusion of surface gravity wave forcing due to the diurnal seabreeze over the complex landwater margin in the Indian River Lagoon will need to be included in order to utilize the model for future application.

First Page

181

Last Page

190

Publication Date

12-22-2000

Comments

This published article is made available in accordance with publishers policy. It may be subject to U.S. copyright law. © (2000) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

http://spie.org/publications/journals/guidelines-for-authors#Terms_of_Use

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