Idealized large-eddy simulations of sea and lake breezes: sensitivity to lake diameter, heat flux and stability

Idealized large-eddy simulations of lake and sea breezes are conducted to deter mine the sensitivity of these thermally-driven circulations to variations in the land-surface sensible heat flux and initial atmospheric stability. The lake-breeze and sea-breeze metrics of horizontal wind speed, horizontal extent, and depth are assessed. Modelled asymmetries about the coastline in the horizontal extent of the low-level onshore flow are found to vary as a function of the heat flux and stability. Small lake breezes develop similarly to sea breezes in the morning, but have a significantly weaker horizontal wind speed component and a smaller horizontal extent than sea breezes in the afternoon.