Despite the importance of sea breeze, only Hendrickson and MacMahanâ s research has been done to determine sea breeze effects in Monterey Bay; other than that not much research has been done. In this thesis, CODAR SeaSonde radars are used to map the surface current in Monterey Bay. Temperature, wind speed and wind direction are analyzed for five locations to establish the algorithm for determining the sea breeze days in Monterey Bay. Harmonic analysis is used to understand the relationship between sea breeze and high frequency (HF) radar-derived surface currents. To explain the cause of the peaks and lows in the amplitude of the sea breeze as shown by the harmonic analysis, coastal jet influences, boundary layer height changes, temperature gradient variations and cloudiness are investigated. Current patterns clearly respond to changing sea breeze strength with the strongest amplitudes corresponding to days with fully developed coastal jets. No coastal jet, lower amplitude sea breeze days, however, appear to have a more classical response in terms of wind direction changes. It is understood that rapid decrease of the amplitude of sea breeze in harmonic analysis is the day with sea breeze including obvious wind shifting, and rapid increase is the day when strong synoptic effect is seen obviously over the region.

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