Mass Balance Analysis and Calculation of Wind Effects on Heat Fluxes in Large Lakes

Session: Poster session

Yuan Hui, University at Buffalo, [email protected]
Joseph Atkinson, University of Buffalo, Dept. of Civil , Struct. & Env Eng., [email protected]
ZHENDUO ZHU, University at Buffalo, SUNY, [email protected]

Abstract

Typical Great Lakes models tend to ignore the water mass balance due mostly to the lack of data. However, it is of interest to evaluate the magnitude of the terms in the water budget since the heat budget, which determines water temperature, is directly linked with the water budget. In this study we modeled Lake Ontario using the Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code (EFDC). It is shown that flow from major tributaries and precipitation/evaporation alone cannot balance the water budget and the missing water quantities could be direct and stream runoff, which can reach up to 1018 m³/s, based on conditions during April to September 2008. The total cumulative change of lake heat storage is about 1.0×10²⁰ J during this period. Sensible heat flux is sensitive to wind implementations. We recommend that with regard to simulating heat and water temperature: 1) averaged wind data provides better results than single station data; 2) with few wind stations, natural neighbor (NN) interpolation provides better results than inverse distance (IDW) or inverse distance squared (IDSW) schemes; 3) with 15 wind stations, little difference is seen among different interpolations schemes, and their effects on lake circulation seems not obvious, but further studies may be necessary.

1. Keyword
Water level

2. Keyword
Lake Ontario

3. Keyword
hydrodynamic model

4. Additional Keyword
heat budget

5. Additional Keyword
wind spatial interpolation