A model of mesoscale air-sea interaction in a sea breeze- coastal upwelling regime.

Abstract

A time-dependent, two-dimensional numerical model is constructed by coupling a four-layer atmosphere to a two-layer ocean through fluxes of heat and momentum. Idealized experiments are performed to investigate the oceanic response to sea breeze forcing, changes induced in the sea breeze by coastal upwelling, and air-sea feedback during periods of active coastal upwelling. This problem is motivated by the fact that the time scale of the coastal upwelling response is short compared to most oceanic response times and is comparable to the sea breeze time scale.- from Authors