A radar analysis of the Delaware sea/bay breeze
Date
2013
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The Delaware sea-breeze circulation is a very influential factor on the climatology of
Delaware. The sea-breeze has important implications on the transport of air-pollutants, thermal
comfort, aviation, and coastal wind-power generation. This mesoscale density current
has been traditionally investigated using a network of Automated Surface Observation Systems
(ASOS). This thesis expands upon the traditional methods to introduce a new method
to observe and characterize the spatial characteristics of the sea-breeze front using the WSR-
88D weather radar. The sea-breeze is the result of the di fferential heating between the land
and sea. This interface and associated scatterers between the two resultant air-masses make
the sea-breeze front detectable using the WSR-88D radar platform. To supplement the radar
data, high resolution Sea Surface Temperature (SST) composites are utilized to show the
influence of the Delaware Bay and coastal ocean water temperatures on the behavior of the
sea-breeze front. Behavioral characteristics examined were frontal inland penetration, speed,
and shape.