A PMEL program. COAST was conducted from Nov. 30 to Dec. 15, 1993 and the purpose was to collect the observations needed to document and ultimately anticipate the influence of orography on mesoscale weather phenomena in coastal environments. The objectives were:

to identify conditions that contribute to the development of coastally trapped disturbances during periods of strong but relatively uniform onshore flow; and

to observe the mesoscale structure of fronts and other features associated with baroclinic cyclones over the open sea, and describe their evolution as they come under the influence of orography.