Mesoscale structure of the Texas coast sea breeze.

Three consecutive early summer field trips to the upper Texas coast have produced data which afford a much clearer view of the sea breeze circulation system than was previously held. Networks of surface observations, of pibal and radiosonde ascents and of aircraft flights have produced observations required for the synthesis of the empirical model presented. Experiments on several scales were conducted so that critical portions of the system could be more carefully described. Non-sea breeze phenomena were examined with respect to their disturbing and indeed sometimes masking effect on the local sea breeze. In the following study, it is shown that the hypothesis of land and sea breeze systems which are governed by the circulation theorem is verified by these observations. The frontal characteristics of the sea breeze and the clockwise rotation of the system with time due to the Coriolis effect are observed. The energy conversion processes of the sea breeze are studied. Finally, the observations are put together to give a synthesized model of this particular sea breeze circulation system as a function of space and time.