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Occurrence of Kelvin-Helmholtz Billows in Sea-breeze Circulations

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Abstract

Centred at the interface between the sea-breeze and the return flow aloft, Kelvin-Helmholtz billows (KHB) are an important feature of the turbulent structure of some sea-breeze circulations (SBCs). In other SBCs, there are no prominent KHBs observed. Factors governing the appearance of billows are determined from a database of 139 sea breezes, constructed from two years of summertime surface observations at a site on the south coast of England. Post-frontal oscillations occur in the surface data for some SBCs and are interpreted as indicating possible KHBs aloft. The SBCs are formed under a wide range of synoptic conditions, enabling various measures of possible billow occurrence to be related to properties of the large-scale, ambient flow. Consistent with laboratory experiments of density currents, KHBs are suppressed for propagation into a head wind and enhanced with a tail wind. They are also found to be enhanced for stronger ambient wind speeds, while large-scale coast-parallel flow is effective in suppressing the billows.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Joint Centre for Mesoscale Meteorology, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Reading, RG6 6BB, UK

    R. S. Plant & G. J. Keith

  2. Environment Agency, Rivers House, Higher Shaftesbury Road, Blandford Forum, Dorset, DT11 8ST, UK

    G. J. Keith

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  1. R. S. Plant
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  2. G. J. Keith
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Correspondence to R. S. Plant.

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Plant, R.S., Keith, G.J. Occurrence of Kelvin-Helmholtz Billows in Sea-breeze Circulations. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 122, 1–15 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-006-9089-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-006-9089-x

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