(Invited Talk) Mixing heights, mixing strength, and surface fluxes over Galveston Bay and Gulf of Mexico

During the 2006 Texas Air Quality Study, boundary layer measurements were made by in-situ instruments, lidars, and rawinsondes on the NOAA RV Ronald H. Brown as well as by radar wind profilers on land. Brown also carried instruments to measure surface heat and momentum fluxes. This presentation will emphasize measurements made in Galveston Bay and in the Gulf of Mexico near the Houston area. Details of boundary layer depth and turbulence intensity over these waters have not been well known previously, but are quite important to the understanding of high ozone episodes in Houston. One somewhat surprising result is that the boundary layer over water was almost always slightly unstable, with positive surface heat flux. Mixing depths were moderate, although mixing was generally weak compared to that over land. Boundary layer heights over the water were substantially shallower than daytime heights over land. Models will need to account for the varying sea surface temperature.