ACPD Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions ACPD 1680-7375 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acpd-11-3579-2011 Lake breezes in the southern Great Lakes region and their influence during BAQS-Met 2007 Sills D. M. L. 1 Brook J. R. 2 Levy I. 2 Makar P. A. 2 Zhang J. 2 Taylor P. A. 3 Cloud Physics and Severe Weather Research Section, Environment Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Air Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 01 02 2011 11 2 3579 3626 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/11/3579/2011/acpd-11-3579-2011.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/11/3579/2011/acpd-11-3579-2011.pdf

Mesoscale observations from the BAQS-Met field experiment during the summer of 2007 were integrated and manually analyzed in order to identify and characterize lake breezes in the southern Great Lakes region of North America, and assess their potential impact on air quality. Lake breezes were found to occur on 90% of study days, often occurring in conditions previously thought to impede their development. They affected all parts of the study region, including southwestern Ontario and nearby portions of southeast Michigan and northern Ohio, occasionally penetrating inland from 100 km to over 200 km. Occurrence rates and penetration distances were found to be higher than previously reported in the literature. This more accurate depiction of observed lake breezes allows a better understanding of their influence on the production and transport of pollutants in this region. <br></br> The observational analyses were compared with output from subsequent runs of a high-resolution numerical weather prediction model. The model accurately predicted lake breeze occurrence in a variety of synoptic wind regimes, but selected cases showed substantial differences in the detailed timing and location of lake-breeze fronts, and with the initiation of deep moist convection. Knowledge of such strengths and weaknesses will assist with interpretation of results from air quality modelling driven by this meteorological model.

 References Arritt,~R W.: Effects of the large-scale flow on characteristic features of the sea breeze, J Appl. Meteorol., 32, 116–125, 1993. Bechtold,~P., Pinty,~J.-P., and Mascart,~P.: A~numerical investigation of the influence of large-scale winds on sea-breeze and inland-breeze-type circulations,~J. Appl. Meteorol., 30, 1268–1279, 1991. Biggs,~W G. and Graves,~M E.: A~lake breeze index, J Appl. Meteorol., 1, 474–480, 1962. Brook, J. R, Makar, P. A., Sills, D. M. L., Hayden, K. L., and McLaren, R.: The border air quality and meteorology study: exploring the nature of air quality over southern Ontario, to be submitted to Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 2011. Comer,~N T. and McKendry,~I G.: Observations and numerical modelling of Lake Ontario breezes, Atmos.-Ocean, 31, 481–499, 1993. Côté,~J., Gravel,~S., Méthot,~A., Patoine,~A., Roch,~M., and Staniforth,~A.: The operational CMC–MRB Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) model. Part~I: design considerations and formulation, Mon. Weather Rev., 126, 1373–1395, 1998. Dickerson,~R R., Huffman,~G J., Luke,~W T., Nunnermacker,~L J., Pickering,~K E., Leslie,~A C D., Lindsey,~C G., Slinn,~W G N., Kelly,~T J., Delany,~A C., Greenberg,~J P., Zimmerman,~P R., Boatman,~J F., Ray,~J D., and Stedman,~D H.: Thunderstorms: an important mechanism in the transport of air pollutants, Science, 235, 460–465, 1987. Eichenlaub,~V L.: Weather and Climate of the Great Lakes Region, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, 335 pp., 1979. Estoque,~M A.: The sea breeze as a~function of the prevailing synoptic situation, J Atmos. Sci., 19, 244–250, 1962. Estoque,~M A.: Further studies of a~lake breeze. Part~I: observational study, Mon. Weather Rev., 109, 611–618, 1981. Estoque,~M A., Gross,~J., and Lai,~H W.: A~lake breeze over southern Lake Ontario, Mon. Weather Rev., 104, 386–396, 1976. Greaves,~B., Trafford,~R., Driedger,~N., Paterson,~R., Sills,~D., Hudak,~D., and Donaldson,~N.: The AURORA nowcasting platform – extending the concept of a~modifiable database for short range forecasting, Preprints, 17th International Conference on Interactive Information and Processing Systems for Meteorology, Oceanography, and Hydrology, Albuquerque, NM, Amer. Meteorol. Soc., 236–239, 14–18 January, 2001. Gusten,~H., Heinrich,~G., Cvitas,~T., Klasinc,~L., Ruscic,~B., Lalas,~D., and Petrakis,~M.: Photochemical formation and transport of ozone in Athens, Greece, Atmos. Environ., 22, 1855–1861, 1988. Harris,~L. and Kotamarthi,~V R.: The characteristics of the Chicago lake breeze and its effects on trace particle transport: results from an episodic event simulation, J Appl. Meteor., 44, 1637–1654, 2005. Hastie,~D R., Narayan,~J., Schiller,~C., Niki,~H., Shepson,~P B., Sills,~D M L., Taylor,~P A., Moroz,~W J., Drummond,~J W., Reid,~N., Taylor,~R., Roussel,~P B., and Melo,~O T.: Observational evidence for the impact of lake breeze circulation on ozone concentrations in southern Ontario, Atmos. Environ., 33, 323–335, 1999. Hayden,~K L., Sills,~D M L., Brook,~J R., Li,~S.-M., Markovic,~M., Liu,~P., Anlauf,~K G., O'Brien,~J M., Strawbridge,~K., Firanski,~B., and McLaren,~R.: The impact of lake breezes on trace gases and particles during the Border Air Quality and Meteorology Study (BAQS-Met), to be submitted to Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., submitted, 2011. King,~P. and Sills,~D M L.: The 1997 ELBOW Project: an experiment to study the effects of lake breezes on weather in southern Ontario, Preprints, 19th Conference on Severe Local Storms, Amer. Meteorol. Soc., Minneapolis, MN, 317–320, 14–18 September, 1998. King,~P W S., Leduc,~M., Sills,~D M L., Donaldson,~N R., Hudak,~D R., Joe,~P I., and Murphy,~B P.: Lake breezes in southern Ontario and their relation to tornado climatology, Weather Forecast., 18, 795–807, 2003. Kong,~F. and Qin,~Y.: The vertical transport of air pollutants by convective clouds. Part I: A~non-reactive cloud transport model, Adv. Atmos. Sci., 10, 415–427, 1993. Laird,~N F., Kristovich,~D A R., Liang,~X.-Z., Arritt,~R W., and Labas,~K.: Lake Michigan lake breezes: climatology, local forcing, and synoptic environment, J Appl. Meteor., 40, 409–424, 2001. Levy,~I., Dayan,~U., and Mahrer,~Y.: A~five-year study of coastal recirculation and its effect on air pollutants over the East Mediterranean region, J Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 113(D16), D16121, doi:10.1029/2007JD009529, 2008. Levy,~I., Makar,~P A., Sills,~D., Zhang,~J., Hayden,~K L., Mihele,~C., Narayan,~J., Moran,~M D., Sjostedt,~S., and Brook,~J.: Unraveling the complex local-scale flows influencing ozone patterns in the southern Great Lakes of North America, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 10895–10915, doi:10.5194/acp-10-10895-2010, 2010. Lyons,~W A.: The climatology and prediction of the Chicago lake-breeze, J Appl. Meteor., 11, 1259–1270, 1972. Lyons,~W A. and Cole,~H S.: Fumigation and plume trapping on the shores of Lake Michigan during stable onshore flow, J Appl. Meteor., 12, 494–510, 1973. Lyons,~W A. and Cole,~H S.: Photochemical oxidant transport: mesoscale lake breeze and synoptic-scale aspects, J Appl. Meteor., 15, 733–743, 1976. Lyons,~W A. and Olsson,~L E.: Detailed mesometeorological studies of air pollution dispersion in the Chicago lake breeze, Mon. Weather Rev., 101, 387–403, 1973. Lyons,~W A., Pielke,~R A., Tremback,~C J., Walko,~R L., Moon,~D A., and Keen,~C S.: Modeling impacts of mesoscale vertical motions upon coastal zone air pollution dispersion, Atmos. Environ., 29, 283–301, 1995. Makar,~P A., Zhang,~J., Gong,~W., Stroud,~C., Sills,~D., Hayden,~K L., Brook,~J., Levy,~I., Mihele,~C., Moran,~M D., Tarasick,~D W., He,~H., and Plummer,~D.: Mass tracking for chemical analysis: the causes of ozone formation in southern Ontario during BAQS-Met 2007, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 11151–11173, doi:10.5194/acp-10-11151-2010, 2010a. Makar,~P A., Gong,~W., Mooney,~C., Zhang,~J., Davignon,~D., Samaali,~M., Moran,~M D., He,~H., Tarasick,~D W., Sills,~D., and Chen,~J.: Dynamic adjustment of climatological ozone boundary conditions for air-quality forecasts, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 8997–9015, doi:10.5194/acp-10-8997-2010, 2010b. Moroz,~W J.: A~lake breeze on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan: observation and model, J Atmos. Sci., 24, 337–355, 1967. Murray,~D., McWhirter,~J., Wier,~S., and Emmerson,~S.: The Integrated Data Viewer: a~web-enabled application for scientific analysis and visualization, Preprints, 19th Int. Conf. on Interactive Information and Processing Systems (IIPS) for Meteorology, Oceanography, and Hydrology, Long Beach, CA, Amer. Meteor. Soc., 10–13 February, 2003. Physick,~W.: A~numerical model of sea-breeze phenomenon over a~lake or gulf, J Atmos. Sci., 33, 2107–2135, 1976. Physick,~W L.: Numerical experiments on the inland penetration of the sea breeze, Q J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 106, 735–746, 1980. Pielke,~R A. and Segal,~M.: Mesoscale circulations forced by differential terrain heating, in: Mesoscale Meteorology and Forecasting, edited by Ray,~P S., Amer. Met. Soc., 516–548, 1986. Purdom,~J F W.: Some uses of high-resolution GOES imagery in the mesoscale forecasting of convection and its behavior, Mon. Weather Rev., 104, 1474–1483, 1976. Reid,~N W., Niki,~H., Hastie,~D., Shepson,~P., Roussel,~P., Melo,~O., Mackay,~G., Drummond,~J., Schiff,~H., Poissant,~L., and Moroz,~W.: The southern Ontario Oxidant Study (SONTOS): overview and case studies for 1992, Atmos. Environ., 30, 2125–2132, 1996. Russell,~R W. and Wilson,~J W.: Radar-observed \qutfine lines in the optically clear boundary layer: Reflectivity contributions from aerial plankton and its predators, Bound.-Lay. Meteorol., 82, 235–262, 1997. Ryznar,~E. and Touma,~J S.: Characteristics of true lake breezes along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, Atmos. Environ., 15, 1201–1205, 1981. Schwab,~D J., Leshkevich,~G A., and Muhr,~G C.: Satellite measurements of surface water temperature in the Great Lakes – Great Lakes Coast Watch, J Great Lakes Res., 18, 247–258, 1992. Sills,~D M L.: Lake and land breezes in southwestern Ontario: observations, analyses and numerical modeling, PhD dissertation, Centre for Research in Earth and Space Science, York University, York, 338 pp., 1998. Sills,~D M L. and Taylor,~N M.: The Research Support Desk (RSD) initiative at Environment Canada: linking severe weather researchers and forecasters in a~real-time operational setting, Preprints, 24th AMS Conference on Severe Local Storms, Savannah, GA, Amer. Meteorol. Soc., 27–31 October, 2008. Sills,~D., Taylor,~P., King,~P., Hocking~W., and Nichols,~I.: ELBOW 2001 – studying the relationship between lake breezes and severe weather: project overview and preliminary results, Preprints, 21st Severe Local Storms Conference, San Antonio, TX, Amer. Meteorol. Soc., 611–614, 12–16 August, 2002. Sills,~D M L., Wilson,~J W., Joe,~P I., Burgess,~D W., Webb,~R M., and Fox,~N I.: The 3 November tornadic event during Sydney 2000: storm evolution and the role of low-level boundaries, Weather Forecast., 19, 22–42, 2004. Simpson,~J E.: Sea Breeze and Local Wind, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 234~pp., 1994. Slowik,~J G., Brook,~J., Chang,~R Y.-W., Evans,~G J., Hayden,~K., Jeong,~C.-H., Li,~S.-M., Liggio,~J., Liu,~P S K., McGuire,~M., Mihele,~C., Sjostedt,~S., Vlasenko,~A., and Abbatt,~J P D.: Photochemical processing of organic aerosol at nearby continental sites: contrast between urban plumes and regional aerosol, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 10, 24993–25031, doi:10.5194/acpd-10-24993-2010, 2010. Steyn,~D., and Kallos,~G.: A~study of the dynamics of hodograph rotation in the sea breezes of Attica, Greece, Bound.-Lay. Meteorol., 58, 215–228, 1992. Stull,~R B.: An introduction to boundary layer meteorology, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 666~pp., 1988. Wilson,~J W. and Roberts,~R D.: Summary of convective storm initiation and evolution during IHOP: observational and modeling perspective, Mon. Weather Rev., 134, 23–47, 2006. Wilson,~J W. and Schreiber,~W E.: Initiation of convective storms by radar-observed boundary layer convergent lines, Mon. Weather Rev., 114, 2516–2536, 1986. Wilson,~J W., Weckwerth,~T M., Vivekanandan,~J., Wakimoto,~R M., and Russell,~R W.: Boundary layer clear-air radar echoes: origin of echoes and accuracy of derived winds, J Atmos. Oceanic Tech., 11, 1184–1206, 1994. Wilson,~J W., Ebert,~E E., Saxen,~T R., Roberts,~R D., Mueller,~C K., Sleigh,~M., Pierce,~C E., and Seed,~A.: Sydney 2000 Forecast Demonstration Project: convective storm nowcasting, Weather Forecast., 19, 131–150, 2004. Wilson,~J W., Feng,~Y., Chen,~M., and Roberts,~R D.: Nowcasting challenges during the Beijing Olympics: successes, failures, and implications for future nowcasting systems, Weather Forecast., 25, 1691–1714, 2010. Wolff,~G T. and Korsog,~P E.: Preliminary results of the 1993 southeast Michigan Ozone Study (SEMOS) field study. Tropospheric ozone: Critical issues in the regulatory process, Proc. Air and Waste Management Association Specialty Conf., Orlando, FL, Air and Waste Manage. Assoc., 151–161, 1996. Yap,~D., Ning,~D T., and Dong,~W.: An assessment of source contributions to the ozone concentration in southern Ontario, 1979–1985, Atmos. Environ., 22, 1161–1168, 1988.