Preliminary study of the offshore wind and temperature profiles at the North of the Yucatán Peninsula

The stability conditions in the atmospheric boundary layer, the intensity of the wind speeds and consequently the energy potential available in offshore conditions are highly influenced by the distance from the coastline and the differences between the air and sea temperatures. This paper presents a preliminary research undertook to study the offshore wind and temperature vertical profiles at the North-West of the Yucatán Peninsula coast. Ten minute averages were recorded over approximately 2 years from sensors installed at two different heights on a communication tower located at 6.65 km from the coastline. The results have shown that the offshore wind is thermally driven by differential heating of land and sea producing breeze patterns which veer to blow parallel to the coast under the action of the Coriolis force. To investigate further, a dataset of hourly sea surface temperatures derived from GEOS Satellite thermal maps was combined with the onsite measured data to study its effect on the vertical temperature profile. The results suggested largely unstable conditions and the potentially development of a shallow Stable Internal Boundary Layer which occurs when warm air from the land advects over the cold sea.

► This is the first study that reports the properties of the vertical wind resources for the offshore conditions of the North coast of the Yucatán Peninsula.
► A significant and detailed analysis of the thermal patterns has revealed a complex structure of the atmospheric boundary layer close to the shore.
► The structure of the diurnal wind patterns was assessed to produce an important reference for the wind resource availability in the study region.
► It was identified that the sea breeze blows in directions almost parallel to the shoreline of the North of the Yucatán Peninsula during the majority of the 24 h cycle.
► The analysis of the offshore data revealed a persistent non-uniform surface boundary layer developed as result of the advection of a warn air over a cold sea.