A case study of the Monterey Bay sea breeze on 25 August 1997

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Authors
Taylor, Steven M.
Subjects
Sea breeze
Mesoscale modeling
MM5 Simulations
Monterey Bay
Salinas Valley
Land breeze
Advisors
Nuss, Wendell A.
Miller, Douglas K.
Date of Issue
1998-09-01
Date
September 1998
Publisher
Monterey, CA; Naval Postgraduate School
Language
en_US
Abstract
On 25 August a controlled burn on the former Fort Ord property raged out of control. The sea breeze was responsible for transporting the acrid smoke into the Salinas Valley. The PSUINCAR mesoscale model, MMS, was run at 4 km grid resolution twice using two different PBL schemes (MRF and Burk-Thompson) and then verified by observations from several local mesoscale networks, including wind profiler data. The MM5 simulation was able to depict the 3-D structure of the sea breeze and differentiate between the local mountain- valley forcing and the large-scale sea breeze forcing. These two individual forcing mechanisms were responsible for an observed double surge in the time series of winds at Fort Ord. Further investigation is needed into the surface parameterization/land use tables to improve the surface forcing.
Type
Thesis
Description
Series/Report No
Department
Department of Meteorology
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
x, 121 p.
Citation
Distribution Statement
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.
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