This study employs 3D idealized numerical experiments to investigate the physical processes associated with coastal convection initiation (CI) as an offshore-moving squall line traverses a mountainous coastal region. A squall line can propagate discretely as convection initiates over the lee slope downstream of the primary storm as the cold pool collides with a sea breeze. Intensity of the initiating convection, thus the downstream squall line, is sensitive to the sea-breeze numerical initialization method, since it influences sea-breeze and cold pool characteristics, instability and vertical wind shear in the sea-breeze environment, and ultimately the vertical acceleration of air parcels during CI. Here, sea breezes are generated through four commonly used numerical methods: a cold-block marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL), a prescribed surface sensible heat flux function, a prescribed surface sensible plus latent heat flux functions, and radiation plus surface-layer parameterization schemes. For MABL-initialized sea breezes, shallow weak sea-breeze flow in a relatively low instability environment results in weak CI. For the remainder, deeper stronger sea-breeze flow in an environment of enhanced instability supports more robust CI. In a subset of experiments, however, the vertical trajectory of air parcels is suppressed leading to weaker convection. Downward acceleration forms due to the horizontal rotation of the sea-breeze flow. Accurate simulations of coastal convective storms rely on an accurate representation of sea breezes. For idealized experiments such as the present simulations, a combination of initialization methods likely produces a more realistic representation of sea breeze and the associated physical processes.
Dynamical physical processes associated with an onshore moving marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL, i.e., sea breeze) over sloping terrain, sensitivity of these processes to MABL characteristics, and flow modifications induced by an offshore‐moving squall line are investigated using idealized simulations. The moving MABL gradually advances inland, exhibiting farther advancement and greater upslope wind speed for deeper and cooler MABLs. The local acceleration is primarily driven by a MABL‐generated perturbation pressure gradient force (PPGF). As the moving MABL air accumulates onshore over time, an opposing force associated with the increasing negative buoyancy eventually balances the PPGF and results in a quasi‐steady upslope flow. The approaching squall line disrupts this flow in two distinct ways; Initially the storm's cold pool enhances the ambient downslope winds which diminishes the upslope wind speeds, and subsequently the storm‐generated high‐frequency waves and the associated surface pressure low enhances the upslope‐directed PPGF which reintensifies the upslope flows.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10418961
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Volume:
- 50
- Issue:
- 6
- ISSN:
- 0094-8276
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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