Abstract
Among the China Seas, the Yellow Sea has the highest occurrence frequency of sea fog that can be categorized into widespread sea fog and coastal sea fog. In this paper, we study a typical coastal sea fog along the Shandong Peninsula that is accompanied by sea-land breezes. Based on a series of numerical experiments conducted by the Weather Research and Forecasting model with high spatial resolution, the impacts of the sea–land breezes on the formation and development of sea fog are investigated in detail. The land breeze can act as an accelerator that enhances humidification and cooling near the coast which promotes sea fog formation during the nighttime, resulting from nearshore vapor convergence and offshore cool-air transportation jointly by the descending branch and low-level breeze of the land breeze circulation. During the daytime, the sea breeze acts as a reducer that inhibits sea fog development, including the contraction of fog area caused by onshore advection of the sea breeze on cloud liquid water, and the restraint of fog vertical growth due to warming and drying by the descending branch of the sea breeze circulation.
Highlights
Received: 30 November 2021Sea–land breezes are widely known as typical local wind circulations that take place over coastal zones and are driven by the thermal difference between land and sea [1]
Located beside the northern edge of the Yellow Sea, which has the highest frequency of sea fog occurrence among the China seas [7,8,9,10], the Shandong Peninsula is frequently influenced by sea fog as well
When a coastal sea fog occurs along the Shandong Peninsula, the weather situation is generally dominated by a high-pressure system [7,11], which is suitable for inducing sea–land breezes to form
Summary
Sea–land breezes are widely known as typical local wind circulations that take place over coastal zones and are driven by the thermal difference between land and sea [1]. Under an appropriate synoptic condition, for example, the rear of a high-pressure system [7,11], warm moist air masses are advected from south to north over the cold sea surface of the Yellow Sea, resulting in sea fog formation. When a coastal sea fog occurs along the Shandong Peninsula, the weather situation is generally dominated by a high-pressure system [7,11], which is suitable for inducing sea–land breezes to form. On the opposite side of the Yellow Sea to the Shandong Peninsula, it has already been found that sea–land breezes can strongly affect the formation of coastal sea fog along the Korean Peninsula [23]. We propose a study on how sea–land breezes impact the formation and development of coastal sea fog along the Shandong Peninsula. The motivation of the present paper is to try to answer this question, through an investigation into a typical coastal sea fog by using observational analysis and numerical simulation
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