Iden%fying

a Sea Breeze Circula%on

Pa6ern Using In Situ Carbon
Dioxide and Wind Direc%on Data
Allison Brannan

Florida State University

NASA SARP 2014
Advisor: Dr. Timothy Bertram
Mentor: Steven Schill

Mo%va%on
Observed from the
AVOCET instrument
during the ights
Extremely high CO2
concentraLon during the
enLre missed approach
at Ontario
The highest CO2
concentraLon was over
Long Beach

Loca%on

Sea Breeze Circula%on

University Center for Atmospheric Research

hPp://www.meted.ucar.edu/mesoprim/seabreez/index.htm

Finding a Tracer
Carbon Dioxide
Chemically inert atmospheric consLtuent
Conserved trace gas
Atmospheric contaminant produced through the
combusLon of fossil fuels

Objec%ves
Determine if carbon dioxide can be used to
trace the sea breeze circulaLon in the LA Basin
Examine meteorological models to discover if
they can detect the sea breeze return ow

High CO2AVOCET
AloI Over
ong Beach
DLata

Could This Be from a Jet Plume?

HYSPLIT
Showing

HYSPLIT
Not
Capturing
Low
Al%tude
Sea
Breeze
Return
Flow
AloI
NOAA HYSPLIT MODEL
Backward
Forward TTrajectories
rajectories
DesLnaLon:
Source:
Source:
Long
OLong
ntario
Beach
Beach
32.8267N
34.055N
33.82N , ,- ,- 118.153W
-117.542W
118.235W
High
Low AlLtude
Height:
Height:
760 3m
m ( 2500
AMSL b)

Highest ResoluLon: NAM 12 km

GFS Not Detec%ng

Return Flow at 2500 I

Horizontal Resolution: 55 km

ARW Showing
Low Al%tude Sea Breeze

Horizontal Resolution: 4 km

ARW Not Detec%ng

Return Flow at 2500 I

Horizontal Resolution: 4 km

Observed Winds Showing

Sea Breeze Circula%on

Carbon Dioxide Concentration (ppmv)

Conclusions
Carbon dioxide can be used to trace the sea
breeze circulaLon paPern of the Los Angeles
Basin
Models can spot the low alLtude sea breeze ow
but they are unsuccessful in detecLng the return
ow at higher alLtude
Future Work:
ValidaLng the carbon dioxide data with ground and
satellite measurements
Finding the locaLon that the air containing carbon
dioxide sinks over the ocean

Acknowledgements

B-Team and Fellow SARPians

Timothy Bertram & Steve Schill
Jessica Sagona
Emily Schaller & Rick ShePer
Nick Heath & Sean Freeman
Melissa Yang