Observations from a suite of platforms deployed in the coastal ocean are being combined with numerical models and simulations to investigate the processes that couple the atmosphere and ocean.

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Results from an observational study of sea-breeze fronts as they cross a shoreline are presented. Two kinds of fronts are analyzed, one with an offshore regional wind and one without. Their structure is found to be substantially different, the former being steeper and having stronger gradients. Measurements of the profiles of the vertical component of the wind speed, its standard deviation and the structure parameter for temperature are presented along with time series of the structure parameters for water vapor pressure and wind speed. The vertical wind component, W, is found to be of the order of 1.0-1.5 ms-I in the front zone of the sharp front but only 4 as large in the weaker front. The usual height variation laws under convective conditions are found to apply for both the vertical velocity variance and the temperature structure parameter, which in conjunction with the appropriate spectra indicate that local equilibrium is re-established fairly quickly after the passage of the front. Substantial differences have also been noted in the values of the structure parameters before and after the front, especially in the water vapor pressure and wind speed, differences which are of dissimilar magnitude and sign for the two kinds of fronts.