A COAMPS™ reanalysis for the Eastern Pacific: Properties of the diurnal sea breeze along the central California coast

[1] This paper introduces and evaluates a new atmospheric model reanalysis product for the U.S. west coast from the Navy's operational Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS™) implemented on a triply nested 81/27/9 km grid. Wind measurements from Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) moorings are used to evaluate a two year time series of the model output from October 1998 to October 2000. The model accurately reproduced both the landward decrease in the large-scale wind field and the shoreward intensification of the diurnal cycle during the summer season. This new reanalysis product will be required for accurate high resolution (km) coastal (0–10 km) simulations of the U.S. west coast by ocean models.