A study of the breeze circulation during summer and fall 2008 in Calabria, Italy

We present a study of the characteristics and importance of breezes at a coastal site in the Central Mediterranean Basin. The site is located on the west coast of the Peninsular Calabria Region at the southern tip of Italy. This study adds new data on breeze circulations over a unique experimental coastal site characterized by the sea-land contrast in a flat area which is also influenced by the complex orography of the region. The first part of the study compares data from a surface meteorological station and meteorological analysis at 850 hPa to show the importance of breeze circulation at the site. Results show that breezes dominate the local circulation and play a major role in the local climate. Moreover, the characteristics of the breeze exhibit significant differences between summer and fall. The second part of the paper examines the thermal and large-scale forcings that play an important role in the breeze circulation. A sharp difference in thermal forcing was observed between July-August and September. The diurnal breeze acts in phase with the large-scale flow and is particularly intense in summer. The modulation of the nocturnal breeze by the large-scale flow is also apparent. The third part of the paper focuses on two selected case studies one for summer and the other for fall and explains differences in the breeze circulation. Finally, the behaviours of summer and fall breezes are presented and discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.