The cooling and moistening effect on the formation of sea fog in the Huanghai Sea

With the sea surface observations from ICOADS for the years 1960~2002, the conditions of cooling, evaporation and water vapor transportation are analyzed and compared for the formation of seasonal sea fog in April-July in the Huanghai Sea. It is found that sea surface cooling is always existent during the fog seasons while sea surface evaporation only appears in April-June in the Huanghai Sea. Local evaporation alone is not sufficient to form fogs though it may lead to light ones. Water vapor transported from the low-latitudes accomplished by specific synoptic systems is the most important condition for sea fog formation. In general, the moistening effect is more important than the cooling one.