Inland convection and energy transfers in a sea breeze model

Availability of potential energy in inland convection and in a sea breeze circulation are compared using a formulation of P. C. Manins and J. S. Turner for the convectively mixed atmospheric boundary layer, and a numerical model of a sea breeze. Entrainment processes during the mixed layer growth appear to affect both the convective scale and the mesoscale, decreasing the amount of potential energy available to the convective scale yet increasing the potential energy available at the mesoscale. The kinetic energy content of the sea breeze cell is explained in terms of a constant efficiency for the conversion of available potential energy inside a cell whose horizontal dimension increases in time. Results of numerical experiments indicate that the current value of the temporally integrated buoyancy flux at the ground is the most important parameter for the sea breeze flow. This parameter determines the strength of the flow as well as the inland movement of the sea breeze front.