Improving the Simulation of Large Lakes in Regional Climate Modeling Two-Way Lake–Atmosphere Coupling with a 3D Hydrodynamic Model of the Great Lakes

Accurate representations of lake–ice–atmosphere interactions in regional climate modeling remain one of the most critical and unresolved issues for understanding large-lake ecosystems and their watersheds. To date, the representation of the Great Lakes two-way interactions in regional climate models...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of climate Vol. 30; no. 5; pp. 1605 - 1627
Main Authors: Xue, Pengfei, Pal, Jeremy S., Ye, Xinyu, Lenters, John D., Huang, Chenfu, Chu, Philip Y.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Boston American Meteorological Society 01.03.2017
Subjects:
Aquatic ecosystems
Atmosphere
Atmospheric models
Atmospheric precipitations
Cable cars
Civil engineering
Climate
Climate change
Climate models
Climatology
Cloud cover
Computational fluid dynamics
Computer simulation
Dimictic lakes
Ecosystems
Enthalpy
Environmental engineering
Environmental science
Evaporation
Fluid flow
General circulation models
Heat
Heat flux
Heat transfer
Hydrodynamics
Ice
Interactions
Job openings
Lake ice
Lake models
Lakes
Modelling
Physical characteristics
Physical properties
Precipitation
Radiation
Regional climate models
Regional climates
Regional development
Representations
Research centers
Sensible heat
Sensible heat flux
Sensible heat transfer
Simulation
Solar radiation
Summer
Surface temperature
Temperature effects
Thermal structure
Three dimensional models
Topography
Two dimensional models
Variability
Watersheds
Wind
Wolves
Lake Superior
California
Ann Arbor Michigan
United States > US
Great Lakes area
Michigan
ISSN:0894-8755, 1520-0442
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Accurate representations of lake–ice–atmosphere interactions in regional climate modeling remain one of the most critical and unresolved issues for understanding large-lake ecosystems and their watersheds. To date, the representation of the Great Lakes two-way interactions in regional climate models is achieved with one-dimensional (1D) lake models applied at the atmospheric model lake grid points distributed spatially across a 2D domain. While some progress has beenmade in refining 1D lake model processes, such models are fundamentally incapable of realistically resolving a number of physical processes in the Great Lakes. In this study, a two-way coupled 3D lake-ice–climate modeling system [Great Lakes–Atmosphere Regional Model (GLARM)] is developed to improve the simulation of large lakes in regional climate models and accurately resolve the hydroclimatic interactions. Model results are compared to a wide variety of observational data and demonstrate the unique skill of the coupled 3D modeling system in reproducing trends and variability in the Great Lakes regional climate, as well as in capturing the physical characteristics of the Great Lakes by fully resolving the lake hydrodynamics. Simulations of the climatology and spatiotemporal variability of lake thermal structure and ice are significantly improved over previous coupled, 1D simulations. At seasonal and annual time scales, differences inmodel results are primarily observed for variables that are directly affected by lake surface temperature (e.g., evaporation, precipitation, sensible heat flux) while no significant differences are found in other atmospheric variables (e.g., solar radiation, cloud cover). Underlying physical mechanisms for the simulation improvements using GLARM are also discussed.
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ISSN:0894-8755
1520-0442
DOI:10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0225.1