Question

What causes a sea breeze ?

Answer 1

Hint: A sea breeze is any wing that flows from a large body of water towards the land. It is developed due to change in the air pressure due to dissimilar heat capacities of land and water. Sea breezes are more localized than the prevailing winds around the area.

Complete answer:
Sea breezes are often in the land areas nearby ocean or sea. It happens because of the fact that land heats up quite faster than water due to solar radiation or the heat of the Sun. On the other hand, a land breeze also occurs in a reverse way. After sunset, the dry lands cool down more quickly than the water, and hence the breeze starts flowing from the land to the sea. Sea breeze and land breeze are two important factors in coastal region’s prevailing winds.

The direct causes for which the sea breeze occurs is: the heat has a greater heat capacity than the land surface. So, the water surface takes more time to heat up in comparison to the land surface. As the temperature of the land increases, it heats the air nearby it by convection. The warming air expands and becomes less dense which in turn decreases the pressure over the land surfaces near the coast. The air near the water has relatively more pressure in comparison to the land surface and hence flows towards the land surface where the pressure is low.

Note: It must be noted that the strength of a sea breeze is directly proportional to the temperature difference between the land surface and the water surface. If there is a strong wind which is in the opposite direction to the direction of possible sea breeze, then there isn’t any possibility for the sea breeze to develop.