Recorded presentationJ10.2
The role of major west coast capes in coastal summer high speed wind structure
Clive E. Dorman, SIO/Univ. Of California, La Jolla, CA; and B. A. Vanhoff and D. Koracin
A special QuickSCAT data set is available with a pixel approximately 12X6 km. A small pixel based analysis yields finer summer sea surface wind structure. An area with winds greater than 8 m/s and standard deviation of 3 m/s extends from Cape Mendocino to Point Conception with winds from the north. Winds greater than 11 m/s always initiate near the tip of a major cape and usually cover at least two major capes. Under higher winds, these high speed wind features can extend from the cape tip, extending downwind and offshore 200 – 300 km. North Coast, inshore winds are faster than central California winds. Buoy winds about a cape are greater than 8 m/s only if buoy pressure difference about the cape is greater than 0.8 hPa per 100 km. The correlation between the cross cape buoy pressure difference and the lee buoy along coast wind component is greater than 0.83. High winds occur at any significant cape only if there is a synoptic scale, along shore pressure gradient over that cape. Correlation of the NCEP summer gradient with mean summer buoy winds is rather mediocre as significant mesoscale structure is missing from the 2.5 degree grid based NCEP reanalysis.
Joint Session 10, Coastal Mesoscale Circulations-II
Wednesday, 14 January 2009, 10:30 AM-12:00 PM, Room 128B
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