Characteristics of Lake Breezes and Their Impacts on Energy and Carbon Fluxes in Mountainous Areas

In mountainous lake areas, lake–land and mountain–valley breezes interact with each other, leading to an "extended lake breeze". These extended lake breezes can regulate and control energy and carbon cycles at different scales. Based on meteorological and turbulent fluxes data from an eddy covariance observation site at Erhai Lake in the Dali Basin,southwest China, characteristics of daytime and nighttime extended lake breezes and their impacts on energy and carbon dioxide exchange in 2015 are investigated. Lake breezes dominate during the daytime while, due to different prevailing circulations at night, there are two types of nighttime breezes. The mountain breeze from the Cangshan Mountain range leads to N1 type nighttime breeze events. When a cyclonic circulation forms and maintains in the southern part of Erhai Lake at night, its northern branch contributes to the formation of N2 type nighttime breeze events. The prevailing wind directions for daytime, N1, and N2 breeze events are southeast, west, and southeast, respectively. Daytime breeze events are more intense than N1 events and weaker than N2 events. During daytime breeze events, the lake breeze decreases the sensible heat flux(Hs) and carbon dioxide flux(F_(CO_2)) and increases the latent heat flux(LE). During N1 breeze events, the mountain breeze decreases Hs and LE and increases F_(CO_2). For N2 breeze events, the southeast wind from the lake surface increases Hs and LE and decreases suppress carbon dioxide exchange.

Numerical Simulations of a Florida Sea Breeze and Its Interactions with Associated Convection:Effects of Geophysical Representation and Model Resolution

The Florida peninsula in the USA has a frequent occurrence of sea breeze(SB)thunderstorms.In this study,the numerical simulation of a Florida SB and its associated convective initiation(CI)is simulated using the mesoscale community Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF)model in one-way nested domains at different horizontal resolutions.Results are compared with observations to examine the accuracy of model-simulated SB convection and factors that influence SB CI within the simulation.It is found that the WRF model can realistically reproduce the observed SB CI.Differences are found in the timing,location,and intensity of the convective cells at different domains with various spatial resolutions.With increasing spatial resolution,the simulation improvements are manifested mainly in the timing of CI and the orientation of the convection after the sea breeze front(SBF)merger into the squall line over the peninsula.Diagnoses indicate that accurate representation of geophysical variables(e.g.,coastline and bay shape,small lakes measuring 10-30 km2),better resolved by the high resolution,play a significant role in improving the simulations.The geophysical variables,together with the high resolution,impact the location and timing of SB CI due to changes in low-level atmospheric convergence and surface sensible heating.More importantly,they enable Florida lakes(30 km2 and larger)to produce noticeable lake breezes(LBs)that collide with the SBFs to produce CI.Furthermore,they also help the model reproduce a stronger convective squall line caused by merging SBs,leading to more accurate locations of postfrontal convective systems.

Summertime Thermally-Induced Circulations over the Lake Nam Co Region of the Tibetan Plateau

Performance of the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University/National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model（MM5） over the Lake Nam Co region of the Tibetan Plateau was evaluated based on the data from five surface observation sites in 2006. The interaction between two thermally-induced circulations（lake breezes and mountain-valley winds） was also investigated. The results show that MM5 could be used to simulate 2-m air temperature; however, MM5 needs improvement in wind field simulation.Two numerical simulations were conducted to study the effect of the lake on the local weather and wind system. The original land cover of the model was used in the control experiment, and the lake was replaced with grassland resembling the area surrounding the lake in the sensitive experiment. The results of the simulations indicate that the lake enhanced the north slope mountain-valley wind and the mountain changed the offshore flow direction at the north shore. During the day, a clear convergent zone and a strong upflow were observed over the north slope of the Nyainq？entanglha Range, which may cause frequent precipitation over the north slope. During the night, the entire area was controlled by a south flow.

Sensitivity of Lake-Effect Convection to the Lake Surface Temperature over Poyang Lake in China

In this study, high-resolution weather research and forecasting(WRF) simulations are used to explore the sensitivity of lake-effect convection over Poyang Lake(PL) to the change of lake surface temperature(LST). A control experiment(CTR) with climate mean LST(303 K) is compared with six sensitivity experiments(CTR-1/2/3K and CTR+1/2/3K) in which the LSTs are set based on the mean LST difference of 6 K between the maximum and minimum. The results show that the CTR experiment reasonably reproduces the lake-effect convection, and the lake-effect convection in sensitivity experiments is significantly influenced by the LST. With the increase of LST, the initiation time of the lake-effect convection is advanced gradually, while the initiation location moves PL from its shore.The lake-effect convection strengthens(weakens) in the increase-temperature CTR+1/2/3K(decrease-temperature CTR-1/2/3K) experiments, but the lake-effect convection does not monotonically strengthen with the LST, for the strongest one occurring in the CTR+1K experiment. The corresponding diagnostic analysis shows that the upward sensible heat flux and latent heat flux over PL increase with the LST, resulting in the enhancement of the lake-land breeze and the enlargement of the convective available potential energy(CAPE). This is the main reason for the changes in the initiation time and location, as well as the intensity of lake-effect convection in different experiments.In addition, the non-monotonous variation of the level of free convection, which is mainly induced by the non-monotonous variation of the lifting condensation level, is responsible for the non-monotonous variation of the lake-effect convection intensity with the LST.

Analysis of a Convective Storm Crossing Poyang Lake in China

A convective storm crossing Poyang Lake(PL)in China during 1200-1600 UTC on 13 May 2015 is examined.The results show that this storm occurs ahead of a 500-hPa trough with weak low-level temperature advection and a convectively stable layer between 925 and 850 hPa,and the tail of the storm is enhanced when its spearhead sweeps over PL after the sunset.Due to the heating and moistening of PL,the convectively stable layer over PL is destabilized;and instead,a deep(below 700 hPa)convectively unstable layer is organized.Moreover,both the radiative cooling and the storm-induced cooling result in a rapid air(near-surface)and land temperature decrease in the surrounding areas.Thus,a large lake-land temperature difference(about 6℃)occurs,which is conducive to generating land-lake breeze and enhancing the convergence of the low-level wind.Finally,the PL-induced deep convectively unstable layer and the enhanced low-level convergence jointly strengthen the crossing storm.To further confirm this,two simulations(with or without PL)are conducted with the Weather Research and Forecast(WRF)model.The simulation with PL successfully reproduces the evolution of the storm crossing PL,while the simulation without PL fails.In the simulation with PL,a highμse tongue at 850 hPa associated with the storm moves eastward and downward,and merges with the PL-induced lake boundary layer,forming a deep convectively unstable layer under 700 hPa.However,in the simulation without PL,the stable layer constantly maintains under 900 hPa.In addition,the 900-hPa wind difference between the simulations with and without PL shows a land-lake breeze circulation that strengths the convergence of the low-level wind.