Two days in May 1997 has been studied. During one of the days a sea breeze circulation occured, and the two days were compared in search for effects from the sea breeze on the fluxes in the marine boundary layer. Measurements were made on a tower at the small island Östergarnsholm east of the island Gotland, and by an instrumented aircraft over the sea east and west of Gotland.
The direction of the geostrophic wind were about northwest during the time period, but 17 m/s during May 3 and 7 m/s during May 4. The stratification was stable over the main part of the Baltic sea because of the large temperature differences between land and sea surfaces. But as the sea breeze developed and the wind direction turned to the southeast, the stratification at Östergarnsholm changed to near neutral. Both the wind speed and the fluxes decreased with distance from the Swedish mainland and the west coast of Gotland, and the fluxes were over all very small. The momentum flux showed no big difference between the days. Because of the decrease with the distance from the coast and the wind speed it was concluded that the stratification was of greater importance than the sea breeze circulation for the momentum fluxe. But the heat flux was affected by the sea breeze. Because of the sea breeze the stratification became neutral, and thus the heat flux very small.
The presence of swell in the baltic sea was also studied. The correlation coefficient gave unexpected result during May 3, with no difference for swell and no swell conditions. The angle between the swell and the wind wave was about 90° during both days, and could not be the reason for the difference. During the May 3 the stratification was mostly stable, while it on May 4 was unstable. It is suggested that this could be a reason for the behaviour of ruw.