A case study of multi-layered wind structure over Tokyo associated with sea

breeze circulation by use of a coherent Doppler lidar and the WRF model
Nobumitsu Tsunematsu, Hironori Iwai, Shoken Ishii, Yasuhiro Murayama,
Motoaki Yasui, Kohei Mizutani, Seiji Kawamura, Yuichi Ohno
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
4-2-1 Nukui-kita, Koganei, Tokyo 184-8795, JAPAN
n.tsunematsu@nict.go.jp

INTRODUCTION at 5 km. The number of vertical layers was set at 31.

In the Kanto Plain, a steady sea breeze originating
from the Pacific coast frequently prevails under the
cloudless weak synoptic wind condition. This sea
breeze is called the extended sea breeze because its
horizontal scale exceeds 100 km (Kondo, 1990). The
extended sea breeze can transport atmospheric
pollutants to the inland area (Kurita et al., 1990). The
sea breeze is, therefore, familiar to people living in
the Kanto Plain including the Tokyo metropolitan
area. To investigate horizontal and vertical wind
fields associated with the sea breeze circulation, this
study performed ground-based coherent Doppler
lidar observations on 10 August 2006 at the National
Institute of Information and Communications
Technology (NICT), located in the metropolitan area.
DOPPLER LIDAR SYSTEM
The NICT coherent Doppler lidar consists of a
transceiver system manufactured by CTI, a two-axis
mirror scanning system, and a data acquisition system
(Ishii et al., 2005). Figure 1 shows a photograph of
the lidar. The Tm:YAG laser pulse is transmitted into
the atmosphere at a 2 μm wavelength through a
8-cm-effective-diameter telescope and a scanning
device. The backscattered signals that are Doppler-
shifted by moving aerosol particles are digitized by 8
bit A/D converters. In this observation, the constant-
azimuth-angle radial wind velocity scans at an
azimuth angle of 213° and elevation angles of 4–90°
were carried out, in addition to the Doppler Beam
Swing (DBS) scans at an elevation angle of 80°.
The NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data (Kalnay et al.,
1996) was used for the initial and boundary conditions.
LIDAR OBSERVATION RESULTS
Figure 2 shows results of the Doppler lidar
constant-azimuth-angle radial wind velocity scans at
1600 local standard time (LST) 10 August 2006. The
negative velocities at altitudes below 1 km above
mean sea level (MSL) and the positive velocities at
altitudes of 1–2 km MSL formed a distinct vertical
wind shear. This wind structure appeared in the
afternoon and persisted until the evening. The cause
of this structure is investigated in the present study.
METEOROLOGICAL CONDITION
The north Pacific anticyclone covered the Japanese
island on 10 August 2006, resulting in a weak
pressure gradient and weak synoptic wind condition
(Figure 3). This synoptic condition was favorable to
the development of local wind circulations in Japan.
Figure 4 shows the 4-hourly surface wind fields
around the Kanto Plain on the daytime of 10 August

NUMERICAL MODEL
Numerical experiments by use of the Weather
Research and Forecasting (WRF) model (Skamarock
et al., 2005) were conducted for reproduction of the Figure 1. Photograph of the Doppler lidar system.
local winds. The interval of horizontal grids was set
Figure 2. Results of the Doppler lidar constant-azimuth-angle radial wind velocity scans at 1600 LST 10 August
2006. The axes of X and Y indicate horizontal distance from the lidar (km) and above mean sea level
(km), respectively. The solid contour lines show the radial wind velocities at intervals of 1 m/s. The dense
shading represents airflow away from the lidar. Airflow toward the lidar is represented by the thin shading.
The barbs and pennants in the right side show a vertical profile of horizontal winds above the lidar at the
same time, observed by DBS. Each barb and pennant indicates the velocity of 1 m/s and 5m/s,
respectively.

SIMULATED WIND FIELDS

aFigure 3. Surface weather chart around Japan at
a0900 LST 10 August 2006.
2006, which were obtained from the Automated
Meteorological Data Acquisition System (AMeDAS)
of the Japan Meteorological Agency. The wind
velocities in the plain were small at 0500 LST (Fig.
4a), but the sea breeze appeared in the coastal area of
Tokyo Bay by 0900 LST (Fig. 4b). The wind fields at
1300 LST show inland penetration of the sea breeze
(Fig. 4c). Airflow originating from the Pacific coast
toward mountainous regions in the north and west of
the plain prevailed in the plain at 1700 LST (Fig. 4d).
Figure 5 shows the simulated surface wind field
and the horizontal divergences in the Kanto Plain at
1230 LST 10 August 2006. A convergence zone
between the southwesterly sea breeze originating
from Sagami Bay and the sea breeze originating
from Tokyo Bay and fronts of those sea breezes can
be recognized. An image by the MoDerate Resolution
Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) of the satellite
AQUA (figures not shown here) shows that cumulus
clouds were formed along both the surface wind
convergence zone and the sea breeze fronts.
Figure 6 shows a vertical cross section of the
simulated winds along 139.5°E at 1600LST 10
August 2006. The front of the sea breeze originating
from Sagami Bay toward the inland area passed the
Doppler lidar observation site in the afternoon. Both
the Doppler lidar and a wind profiler installed at
NICT observed strong updrafts with vertical velocities
of approximately 3 m/s when the sea breeze front
passed. Also, strong backscattered signals that appear
to be caused by the cumulus clouds were observed
by the Doppler lidar and a ceilometer at NICT.
MULTI-LAYERED WIND STRUCTURE
After the passage of the sea breeze front, vertical
wind fields over Tokyo had a sharp multi-layered
wind structure, as recognized in Figure 2. The
multi-layered wind structure was composed of 1) the
sea breeze layer at altitudes below 0.9 km MSL, 2) a
layer of weak winds at altitudes of 0.9–1.1 km MSL,
3) the compensatory return flow layer at altitudes of
1.1–2.2km MSL, and 4) a prevailing synoptic wind
at altitudes above 2.2km MSL. Southerly and
northerly winds prevail in the sea breeze layer and
the compensatory return flow layer, respectively. The
synoptic wind direction is the northwest, which is
almost perpendicular to the radial wind, resulting in
the small radial wind velocities. The same wind
structure has been observed in the West Coast and
the coastal area of the Mediterranean sea (Banta,
1995; Darby et al., 2002; Lemonsu et al., 2006).
Figure 4. Observed surface wind fields around the Kanto Plain on 10 August 2006: (a) 0500 LST, (b) 0900 LST, (c)
a aa1300 LST, and (d) 1700 LST.
a
SUMMARY
Ground-based coherent Doppler lidar observations
were performed in Tokyo on 10 August 2006 in
order to observe horizontal and vertical wind fields
associated with sea breeze circulation. Results of the
lidar observations were analyzed through numerical
experiments and meteorological analyses. Strong
updrafts and strong signals backscattered from
cumulus clouds were observed when a sea breeze
front passed the lidar. After the passage of the sea
breeze front, a multi-layered vertical wind structure
was formed above Tokyo. The layered structure was
composed of 1) the sea breeze layer, 2) a layer of
weak winds, 3) the compensatory return flow layer,
and 4) a prevailing northwesterly synoptic wind.

Figure 5. Simulated surface winds and the horizontal
adivergences around the Kanto Plain at 1230
aLST 10 August 2006. The solid lines within the
abox show the divergence value of –1x10-5s-1.
aThe shading within the box shows the
adivergence values of less than –1x10-4s-1. The
amesh shows the topography.
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Figure 6. Vertical cross section of the simulated wind vectors along 139.5°E at 1600 LST 10 August 2006.
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