DETAILED STUDY OF ADVECTION SEA FOG FORMATION TO REDUCE THE OPERATIONAL IMPACTS ALONG THE NORTHERN GULF OF MEXICO

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DETAILED STUDY OF ADVECTION SEA FOG FORMATION TO
REDUCE THE OPERATIONAL IMPACTS ALONG THE NORTHERN
GULF OF MEXICO
Advection sea fog occurs when synoptic situations
force warm, moist air over water that is cooler
than the dewpoint. The air is then cooled to the
dewpoint and fog develops. This usually occurs
on the cold side of a strong sea surface
temperature gradient, as seen below.
Capt Jason M. King (Mar 07) Advisors Prof
Wendell A. Nuss, Prof Carlyle H. Wash Sponsor
None Beneficiaries 9th OWS, 26th OWS, Tyndall
CWT, Hurlburt CWT, Eglin CWT, Keesler CWT,
NWSFOs along Northern Gulf of Mexico

• STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
• Many locations along the northern Gulf of
  Mexico, suffer from instances of unforecast
  advection sea fog development during the winter.
  These events have enormous impacts on both
  military and civilian aviation and maritime
  operations. If sea fog development were forecast
  more accurately, the potentially affected
  agencies could drastically improve efficiency by
  altering current operations.

Hurlburt
Destin-Ft Walton Beach Airport
Tyndall

• RESULTS
• New local forecast rules of thumb and guidelines
  were established for Tyndall, Eglin, Hurlburt,
  Keesler and Destin-Ft Walton Beach Airport to
  improve advection sea fog forecasting accuracy at
  these locations
• Parameter accuracy rates were found for each
  location to show the effectiveness of this method

Strong sea surface temperature gradient