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Topographic-thermal circulations and GPS-measured moisture variability around Mayaguez, Puerto Rico

Listed in National Center for Atmospheric Research

To investigate topographic-thermal circulations and the associated moisture variability over western Puerto Rico, field data were collected from 15 to 31 March 2011.

Description

Surface meteorological instruments and ground-based GPS receivers measured the circulation and precipitable water with high spatial and temporal resolution, and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model was used to simulate the mesoscale flow at 1-km resolution.

A westerly onshore flow of similar to 4ms(-1) over Mayaguez Bay was observed on many days, due to an interaction between thermally driven [3 degrees C (10 km)(-1)] sea-breeze circulation and an island wake comprised of twin gyres. The thermally driven sea breeze occurred only when easterly synoptic winds favorably oriented the gyres with respect to the coast. Moisture associated with onshore flow was characterized by GPS measured precipitable water (PW).

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There is diurnal cycling of PW > 3 cm over the west coast during periods of onshore flow. The WRF Model tends to overestimate PWon the west side of the island, suggesting evapotranspiration as a process needing further attention. Fluctuations of PW affect local rainfall in times of convective instability.

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Provenance · 1 source records, 8 field assertions
SourceKeyLast seenRaw
National Center for Atmospheric Research17a76cdb-bae2-4e33-83e0-3e532c189ba013 d agoJSON v1
FieldAssertionExtractorEvidence
concepts[field].anzsrc:group:3709enrichment · data ucar edutaxonomy-embedding@1.1.0title+keywords+description (73%)
concepts[field].local:field:earth-environmentalmapping · data ucar educonnector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0
concepts[field].local:field:ocean-atmosphericmapping · data ucar educonnector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0
created_datesource · data ucar educonnector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0
descriptionsource · data ucar educonnector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0/notes
publication_datesource · data ucar educonnector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0
titlesource · data ucar educonnector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0/title
updated_datesource · data ucar educonnector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0