Characterization of sea/land breeze circulation along the west coast of Indian sub-continent during pre-monsoon season

High-resolution Regional Model is used to study the structure and dynamics of Sea/Land Breeze Circulation along west coast of Indian Sub-continent during pre-monsoon season. Both the observations from ocean and land are in agreement with the model simulations. From the model simulations, a time delay of 3 hours is observed in the onset of sea breeze over ocean and land (similar to 28 km from the sea/land interface). The two main components of the sea breeze circulation cell, the sea breeze flow in the lower levels and the return current in the upper levels are clearly modeled. The vertical extent of sea breeze circulation cell is similar to 1 km and, the horizontal seaward and landward extensions are similar to 100 and similar to 75 km respectively from the sea/land interface. Within the sea breeze circulation cell, during daytime, a shallow mixed layer (600-800 m) over ocean and a convective mixed layer (1000-1200 m) over the land are observed. Observations and simulations verified the pre-assumption of the near neutral lapse rate existing over ocean and transferring to the onshore regions. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.