An observational study of the sea breeze at the Brazilian launching rocket center

tinent site.In order to study the development of the sea breeze in Alcantara (2S, 44 W), simultaneous measurements of rawinsoundings at continental and marine sites were made. The data from the atmospheric boundary layer over ocean has been carried out from an oceanographic vessel (20 km far from the shoreline) and the continent at the Meteorological Section from Centro de Lancamento de Alcantara (8 km inland). At the shoreline, besides the change of roughness there is also a displacement of the surface about 40 m. The field experiment was conduct during June 1999 (end of wet season) and consist of 24 simultaneous soundings. The time of the soundings were 6, 12, 18 and 21 GMT. The height of the convective boundary layer over the ocean is in the range 500-800 m while over the continent is deeper (ranging from 800-1200 m). This pattern is due to the large sensible heat flux over the continent. Also, it was observed that the potential temperature were very similar, but the boundary layer is wetter at the ocean (typically 1-2 g/kg). The height of the influence from the sea breeze is up top 2500 m and it was also noticed that the wind profile over the continent is stronger and turbulent than the marine's boundary layer. This is due to the strong mechanical mixing at the con