Preliminary study of the offshore wind and temperature profiles at the North of the Yucatan Peninsula

Soler-Bientz, R. and Watson, S. and Infield, D. and Ricalde-Cab, L. (2011) Preliminary study of the offshore wind and temperature profiles at the North of the Yucatan Peninsula. Energy Conversion and Management, 52 (8-9). pp. 2829-2843. ISSN 0196-8904 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2011.02.024)

Full text not available in this repository.Request a copy

Abstract

The stability conditions in the atmospheric boundary layer, the intensity of the wind speeds and consequently the energy potential available in offshore conditions are highly influenced by the distance from the coastline and the differences between the air and sea temperatures. This paper presents a preliminary research undertook to study the offshore wind and temperature vertical profiles at the North-West of the Yucatan Peninsula coast. Ten minute averages were recorded over approximately 2 years from sensors installed at two different heights on a communication tower located at 6.65 km from the coastline. The results have shown that the offshore wind is thermally driven by differential heating of land and sea producing breeze patterns which veer to blow parallel to the coast under the action of the Coriolis force. To investigate further, a dataset of hourly sea surface temperatures derived from GEOS Satellite thermal maps was combined with the onsite measured data to study its effect on the vertical temperature profile. The results suggested largely unstable conditions and the potentially development of a shallow Stable Internal Boundary Layer which occurs when warm air from the land advects over the cold sea.

CORE (COnnecting REpositories)