I remember being examined at the General Belgrano where knowledge of advection fog was one of the topics explored. This was about 19 years ago but a little of the met theory stuck and I think it goes something like this.
Sea fog or advection fog is a movement fog caused when warm moist air flows over a cold surface.
If you have an air mass moving towards a shore - say 10kts at +10*C with a dewpoint of +8*C over a sea at +6*C and a shoreline of +6*C then you a likely to encounter advection fog or what we call up norf in Durham haar.
As the parcel of air moves further inland - encounters land at over + 8*C the condensation dissipates as the ambient temperature is above the dewpoint of the parcel of air. The distance between land at +6*C and +8*C can be as little as a few hundred yards but I have seen over several miles which begins to impinge on aerodromes like EGNT and EGNV.
If the onshore wind rises much above 15kts then the fog clears to low ST.
Slightly different to steaming fog where air from a very cold land in moving over a warmer sea but this is very unusual in my local latitude- 55N but I have seen this off Kirkenes (70N) in Norway.