Sea-Breeze Modification Of The Growth Of A Marine Internal Boundary Layer

A numerical mesoscale model is used to make a high-resolutionsimulation of the marine boundary layer in the Persian Gulf, duringconditions of offshore flow from Saudi Arabia. A marine internal boundary layer(MIBL) and a sea-breeze circulation (SBC) are found to co-exist. The sea breeze develops in the mid-afternoon, at which time its frontis displaced several tens of kilometres offshore. Between the coastand the sea-breeze system, the MIBL that occurs is consistent with a picture described in the existing literature. However, the MIBL isperturbed by the SBC, the boundary layer deepening significantly seaward of the sea-breeze front. Our analysis suggests that thisstrong, localized deepening is not a direct consequence offrontal uplift, but rather that the immediate cause is the retardation of theprevailing, low-level offshore windby the SBC. The simulated boundary-layer development can be accounted for by using a simple 1D Lagrangian model of growth driven by the surface heatflux. This model is obtained as a straightforward modification ofan established MIBL analytic growth model.