EGU25-15917, updated on 15 Mar 2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-15917
EGU General Assembly 2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Horizontal and vertical analysis of sea breezes in the Gulf of Cádiz (SW Spain) from surface stations and radiosounding data
Carlos Román-Cascón1, Pablo Ortiz-Corral2, Esther Luján-Amoraga1, Alberto Jiménez-Rincón1, Marina Bolado-Penagos1, Miguel Bruno1, Alfredo Izquierdo1, Jielun Sun3, and Carlos Yagüe2
Carlos Román-Cascón et al.
  • 1University of Cádiz, INMAR, Applied Physics Department, Puerto Real, Spain (carlos.roman@uca.es)
  • 2Departamento de Física de la Tierra y Asfrofísica, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Avda. Complutense s/n, Madrid 28040, Comunidad de Madrid, Spain
  • 3NorthWest Research Associates, Boulder, United States of America

Sea breezes are mesoscale phenomena formed in coastal regions when winds at the synoptic scale are weak. During the daytime, their general (and well-known) picture includes sea-to-land winds at the surface and land-to-sea ones at a certain height, closing the breeze circulation. However, this canonical picture is rarely observed from observations due to the interactions of the sea breezes with other flows, such as those related to the background (weak to moderate) synoptic conditions, the development of other local flows and/or the interactions with other processes within the atmospheric boundary layer, among others. This study shows an in-depth analysis of these interactions based on data gathered from surface stations and radiosoundings launched during different sea-breeze events detected in the northern zone of the Gulf of Cádiz (SW Spain). These winds have important impacts in this area during summer, especially due to their capacity to refresh warm temperatures and transport humidity.

This study has been developed within the LATMOS-i1, WINDABL2, and WIND4US3 projects, all of which include, among their objectives, the study of the interaction between coastal breezes and upper winds through different observational and modelling strategies. In this work, we present part of the observational strategy developed at the Gulf of Cádiz, which consisted of 1) the installation of meteorological and atmospheric turbulence stations at strategic locations for the long-term monitoring of breezes, as well as; 2) the launching of atmospheric radiosoundings during intensive observation periods characterised by sea-breeze conditions. We also present some results from the analysis of events with different characteristics, allowing us to highlight how they differ during contrasting background winds and under conditions with different thermodynamic vertical structures of the atmospheric boundary layer.

1 The LATMOS-i project (PID2020-115321RB-I00) (Land-ATMOSphere interactions in a changing environment: How do they impact on atmospheric-boundary-layer processes at the meso, sub-meso and local scales in mountainous and coastal areas?), funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033.

2 The WINDABL project (PR2022-055) (How are the Surface Thermally Driven Winds influenced by the vertical structure and horizontal inhomogeneities of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer?), funded by Plan Propio de la Universidad de Cádiz, Convocatoria 2022 de Proyectos para investigadores nóveles.

3The WIND4US project (CNS2023-144885) (Disentangling the complexity of the WIND systems in coastal areas FOR a better Understanding of their impacts on Society), funded by Convocatoria 2023 de Proyectos de Consolidación Investigadora.

How to cite: Román-Cascón, C., Ortiz-Corral, P., Luján-Amoraga, E., Jiménez-Rincón, A., Bolado-Penagos, M., Bruno, M., Izquierdo, A., Sun, J., and Yagüe, C.: Horizontal and vertical analysis of sea breezes in the Gulf of Cádiz (SW Spain) from surface stations and radiosounding data, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-15917, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-15917, 2025.

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