What causes an ocean breeze to blow?
1 Answer
Apr 18, 2017
Differential heating resulting in a pressure gradient.
Explanation:
During the day the land heats up faster than the water, primarily due to mixing. With the land being warmer, the atmosphere above the land heats up. As Charles' Law tells us, when temperature increases volume increases. Since density is mass/volume then an increase in volume will result in a decrease in density and therefore the warm air becomes more buoyant. This causes the air to rise, which lowers the air pressure.
Meanwhile the air over the water does not heat as fast, and therefore is not as buoyant. With lower air pressure over the land a gradient forms and air moves from the high pressure (over the water) to the low pressure (over the land).
