Sea Breeze Front Inland Propagation Distance

Integrate measured relative sea-breeze front speeds minus declared opposing background flow along fixed caller inland normal; signed retreat remains, no coast coordinates or propagation forecast.

Description

A sea-breeze front can advance or retreat relative to land.

A sea-breeze front can advance or retreat relative to land. Integrating its velocity along a fixed inland direction gives displacement rather than a map of the coastline.^[1]

Integrate measured relative sea-breeze front speeds minus declared opposing background flow along fixed caller inland normal; signed retreat remains, no coast coordinates or propagation forecast.

When to use Sea Breeze Front Inland Propagation Distance

Use this tool to integrate measured relative sea-breeze front speeds minus declared opposing background flow along fixed caller inland normal; signed retreat remains, no coast coordinates or propagation forecast.

Prepare the observed sounding, cloud records or forecast verification data. Check pressure and height coordinates, wind conventions and the stated units.

How to use Sea Breeze Front Inland Propagation Distance and understand its results

Prepare the observed sounding, cloud records or forecast verification data. Check pressure and height coordinates, wind conventions and the stated units.
Enter observationSeconds, frontNormalSpeedsMPerSecond, opposingNormalWindMPerSecond using the field table and calculation rules, then run the tool.
Read signedInlandPropagationDistanceM, intervalNormalNetSpeedsMPerSecond. The explanation below defines the units, signs, ordering and any flags or placeholder values.
If the tool reports an input issue, correct the values and run it again. Apply the stated assumptions when interpreting a successfully returned result.

Input field	Meaning	Value type; see rules below	Requirement
observationSeconds	Observation seconds	list of number	Required
frontNormalSpeedsMPerSecond	Front normal speeds m per second	list of number	Required
opposingNormalWindMPerSecond	Opposing normal wind m per second	list of number	Required

Pair speeds with increasing observation seconds. Subtract the opposing background component at every sample and integrate adjacent samples by the trapezoidal rule. Negative net speeds and signed retreat are retained; the returned speed list is at observation samples.

Paired lists must be nonempty and have equal lengths.

distance = trapezoidal integral of (front normal speed − opposing normal wind) dt

Units, indexing, boundary conditions and exceptional cases are defined in the calculation rules above.

Output field	Meaning	Value type
signedInlandPropagationDistanceM	Signed inland propagation distance m	number
intervalNormalNetSpeedsMPerSecond	Interval normal net speeds m per second	list of number

json

{
  "input": {
    "observationSeconds": [
      0,
      10,
      20
    ],
    "frontNormalSpeedsMPerSecond": [
      1,
      2,
      3
    ],
    "opposingNormalWindMPerSecond": [
      0.5,
      0.5,
      0.5
    ]
  },
  "output": {
    "signedInlandPropagationDistanceM": 30,
    "intervalNormalNetSpeedsMPerSecond": [
      0.5,
      1.5,
      2.5
    ]
  }
}

Limitations and assumptions

The direction and measured positions are caller-defined. No geographic coordinates, future propagation or front identification are inferred.

Numeric inputs and returned numeric values must be finite; an unrepresentable returned value produces an error. Numeric lists are limited to 100,000 entries; the rules above may require smaller limits. Missing required fields, extra fields, wrong value types and violations of the calculation rules are input errors.

Alternative or Complementary methods

Use Bulk Shear 0 To 6KM: Interpolate observed 0/6000 m AGL wind endpoints before signed bulk shear difference; full layer coverage required, not average shear rate, surface-speed difference or a storm warning. For a complementary task, use Ageostrophic Component Magnitude: Difference measured and independently supplied geostrophic wind vectors, not scalar speed subtraction or computed pressure-gradient wind.

References

Sea Breeze Front Inland Propagation Distance — tool.io

Similar or alternative tools

Bulk Shear 0 To 6KM
Interpolate observed 0/6000 m AGL wind endpoints before signed bulk shear difference; full layer coverage required, not average shear rate, surface-speed difference or a storm warning.
Ageostrophic Component Magnitude
Difference measured and independently supplied geostrophic wind vectors, not scalar speed subtraction or computed pressure-gradient wind.