A non-hydrostatic modeling study of surface moisture effects on mesoscale convection induced by sea breeze circulation

Abstract

Convection and subsequent precipitation induced by the sea breeze circulations are often observed in the Florida peninsula during summer. In this study, the mechanisms of initiation and maintenance of the convective clouds and precipitation are investigated. A fully-compressible fine resolution non-hydrostatic mesoscale numerical model is used in this study. Surface energy and moisture budget were included in this model to simulate the diurnal cycle of ground surface temperature and wetness. The model also has a sophisticated boundary layer and explicit cloud physics. A sounding obtained from Orlando, Florida at 1110 UTC 17 July 1991 as part of the Convection and Precipitation Electrification (CaPE) experiment is used for initialization. The initial data for the model is kept in geostrophic and thermal wind balance. Several sensitivity tests were conducted to investigate the effects of different treatments of ground surface moisture and temperature on the model forecast of the convection and precipitation induced by the sea breeze circulations. The simulations agree reasonably well with the observations when both surface energy and moisture budget were included in the model to predict ground surface temperature and wetness. The surface moisture has a significant impact on the formation, strength, sustenance, and the location of convection and precipitation induced by the sea breezes.