ASR Advances in Science and Research ASR Adv. Sci. Res. 1992-0636 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/asr-4-47-2010 The seasonal characteristics of the breeze circulation at a coastal Mediterranean site in South Italy Federico S. 1 2 Pasqualoni L. 3 Sempreviva A. M. 1 4 De Leo L. 2 Avolio E. 2 Calidonna C. R. 1 Bellecci C. 2 3 Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, Italian National Research Council (ISAC-CNR), Section of Lamezia Terme, Italy CRATI Scrl, Rende, Italy Engineering Department, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Italy Wind Energy Department, Risoe-Danish Technical University, Roskilde, Denmark 27 04 2010 4 1 47 56 Copyright: © 2010 S. Federico et al. 2010 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://asr.copernicus.org/articles/4/47/2010/asr-4-47-2010.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://asr.copernicus.org/articles/4/47/2010/asr-4-47-2010.pdf

We present a study on the characteristics of the sea breeze flow at a coastal site located in the centre of the Mediterranean basin at the southern tip of Italy. This study is finalized to add new data on breeze circulations over a narrow peninsula and present a unique experimental coastal site at about 600 m from the coastline in a flat open area at the foot of a mountain chain located in a region of complex orography. We study the seasonal behaviour of the sea-land breeze circulation by analysing two years of hourly data of wind speed and direction, temperature, radiation and relative humidity from a surface meteorological station, eighteen-months data from a wind profiler, and two-year data from the ECMWF analysis. <br><br> Results show that breezes dominate the local circulation and play a major role for the local climate. They are modulated by the season, through the sea-land temperature difference and the large-scale flow. The large-scale forcing acts in phase with the diurnal breeze and opposes the nocturnal breeze. <br><br> In summer, the daytime difference between the land surface temperature and the SST (Sea Surface Temperature) reaches its maximum, while the nigh-time difference has its minimum. This causes a strong, frequent and intense diurnal breeze and a weak nocturnal breeze. <br><br> In winter and fall the nocturnal difference between the sea and land surface temperature reaches a maximum value, while the diurnal difference is at its minimum value. This causes a strong, frequent and intense nocturnal breeze despite of the large-scale forcing that is usually opposed to local-scale flow.

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