B51F-0499
The Dynamics of Laurentian Great Lakes Surface Energy Budgets
Friday, 18 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Peter Blanken, University of Colorado, Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, Christopher Spence, Environment Canada, Saskatoon, SK, Canada, John D Lenters, LimnoTech, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, Andrew Gronewold, Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, Branko Kerkez, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, Pengfei Xue, Michigan Technological University, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Houghton, MI, United States and Norma Froelich, Northern Michigan University, Chelsea, MI, United States
Abstract:
The Laurentian Great Lakes constitute the largest freshwater surface in the world and are a valuable North American natural and socio-economic resource. In response to calls for improved monitoring and research on the energy and water budgets of the lakes, there has been a growing ensemble of in situ measurements - including offshore eddy flux towers, buoy-based sensors, and vessel-based platforms -deployed through an ongoing, bi-national collaboration known as the Great Lakes Evaporation Network (GLEN). The objective of GLEN is to reduce uncertainty in Great Lakes seasonal and 6-month water level forecasts, as well as climate change projections of the surface energy balance and water level fluctuations. Although It remains challenging to quantify and scale energy budgets and fluxes over such large water bodies, this presentation will report on recent successes in three areas: First, in estimating evaporation rates over each of the Great Lakes; Second, defining evaporation variability among the lakes, especially in winter and; Third, explaining the interaction between ice cover, water temperature, and evaporation across a variety of temporal and spatial scales. Research gaps remain, particularly those related to spatial variability and scaling of turbulent fluxes, so the presentation will also describe how this will be addressed with enhanced instrument and platform arrays.
