Science question 3
Forecast in coastal cities (for the Marseilles site)
Sailing facilities are located in the bay of the city of Marseille. The site is very complex, with a bay on the west, the Mediterranean Sea on the West and South, hills of 500m of height on the South, East and North in enclosing the dense part of the city. In summer, sea breezes occurs during the day, and lead to rapidly increasing boundary layer above the city, with a very complex vertical structure over the city. This is due to several sea breeze currents, coming from the bay and from the South, that superimpose each other and interact with the hills. A documentation of such an event is presented in Lemonsu et al 2006a, 2006b. The wind field can be very variable from one day to another, even for relatively calm conditions.
Vertical structure of the boundary layer above Marseille during a sea breeze event (left: observations; right: 250m resolution model). From Lemonsu et al 2006a
Surface wind pattern and temperature field over Marseille (simulated at 250m of resolution), from Lemonsu et al 2006b
Another issue is on the quantification of improvement of the coupling of atmospheric models with coastal ocean models, for both the prediction of weather in the region and the impact on the sailing events.