Recent work by Cross (2003) that utilized COAMPS(TM) simulations has suggested that the structure of the summertime coastal jet along the coast of California is determined to a significant degree by the large-scale pressure pattern and the resulting angle of incidence between the synoptically-forced flow and the coastal mountains. The resulting mountain waves and the corresponding mesoscale surface pressure perturbations ultimately determine the strength and orientation of the coastal jet in the coastal zone. This notion offers a more general mechanism for the evolution of the coastal jet rather than the supercritical flow model along an irregularly-shaped coastline, which tends to be rather restrictive in terms of the number of days having favorable conditions for such a mechanism.

This study will examine the sensitivity of the simulated coastal jet for the cases examined by Cross (2003) in June 1996 to variations in coastal topography. Slopes and heating of the coastal mountains and the coastline geometry as depicted in COAMPS(TM) will be changed to examine the resulting coastal jet evolution on two separate days in which the sea-level pressure gradient had a different orientation relative to the ridgeline of the coastal mountains.