Abstract
Abstract Return flow is the moist southerly wind that develops over the Gulf of Mexico after an outbreak of polar air. Surface, aircraft, and special rawinsonde data collected during the Gulf of Mexico Experiment (GUFMEX) are used to describe the return-flow event of 10–12 March 1988. The return flow at the surface contained both modified polar air and prefrontal air. The surface moist layer was capped by a stable subsident layer except over its western extremity, where an elevated mixed layer was observed. At later stages, a moist layer aloft was present as well. These complex airmass structures arose because both advective and diabatic processes are significant in a return flow. The roles of each are inferred qualitatively by comparing the observed mixing-ratio distribution to the equilibrium conditions expected for the observed sea surface temperatures. The surface moisture distribution can be explained by rapid modification of offshore flow to near equilibrium, followed by onshore (return) flow of the...
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