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A thermodynamic theory for breezes: test using numeric simulations

In this work we test a thermodynamic theory for sea-land breeze coupled with valley-mountain breeze through tri-dimensional numeric simulations. We verify the presence of such a breeze in Northeast Brazil's east coast and perform experiments with and without the topography of the region. Although the temperature contrast between two surfaces is important in forming the breezes, the thermodynamic efficiency is a key parameter for the breeze intensity. The presence of the slope causes the pressure difference between two points to increase during the day and to decrease during the night. This contributes for more intense daytime breeze and less intense nighttime ones. The maximum pressure drop occurs about three hours prior the maximum intensity of the sea breeze. This is because most of the available energy for the circulations is used to overcome dissipation, mainly during daytime. From a purely thermodynamic viewpoint, the slope of a mountain acts to intensifying the daytime breeze and to weaken the nighttime breeze.

breeze; thermodynamic theory; expansion work; BRAMS


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