Articles | Volume 19, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-933-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-933-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Identifying sea breezes from atmospheric model output (sea_breeze v1.1)
ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
Claire Vincent
ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
Ewan Short
School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
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Sea breezes are characterised in potential offshore wind development areas in Australia. For most areas in summer, there are more available wind resources in the afternoon on days with sea breezes (by 15–30 %), although there are also late-morning lulls due to the sea breeze opposing the existing prevailing winds. The afternoon peak in wind speeds occurs at around the same time as peak energy demand. These findings have implications for energy system planning and wind farm development.
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A computer model that simulates the climate of southeastern Australia is shown here to represent extreme wind events associated with convective storms. This is useful as it allows us to investigate possible future changes in the occurrences of these events, and we find in the year 2050 that our model simulates a decrease in the number of occurrences. However, the model also simulates too many events in the historical climate compared with observations, so these future changes are uncertain.
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Sea breezes are characterised in potential offshore wind development areas in Australia. For most areas in summer, there are more available wind resources in the afternoon on days with sea breezes (by 15–30 %), although there are also late-morning lulls due to the sea breeze opposing the existing prevailing winds. The afternoon peak in wind speeds occurs at around the same time as peak energy demand. These findings have implications for energy system planning and wind farm development.
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The most important days for wind energy to make a large contribution to the electricity supply are when electricity demand is high. We examined the wind resource of southeast Australia on these days. We found that most hot high-demand days are influenced by a similar weather pattern, while cold high-demand days can be cold, wet, and windy or associated with widespread light winds. These results are important when considering the types of weather that could influence future wind energy.
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A computer model that simulates the climate of southeastern Australia is shown here to represent extreme wind events associated with convective storms. This is useful as it allows us to investigate possible future changes in the occurrences of these events, and we find in the year 2050 that our model simulates a decrease in the number of occurrences. However, the model also simulates too many events in the historical climate compared with observations, so these future changes are uncertain.
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Short summary
We developed software to identify sea breezes from weather model output, using three different methods, and applied these to four models for a 6-month period over Australia. We tested each method using case studies and statistics of sea breeze occurrences, finding that a method that identifies atmospheric moisture fronts performs well. Some potential errors are demonstrated due to detection of other frontal systems, but this method could be useful for robustly analyzing sea breezes from models.
We developed software to identify sea breezes from weather model output, using three different...