Circulation in Lake Ontario: Numerical and Physical Model Analysis
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 147, Issue 8
Abstract
The validation of numerical models for large lakes is difficult because of sparse field observations. In this study, a Froude-Rossby scaled physical model of Lake Ontario, North America, is used to support numerical simulations. Experimental data are consistent with available field observations and provide a more comprehensive view of lake-wide features that include, in the absence of wind, strong eastward flows along both northern and southern shorelines, a large cyclonic gyre in the Rochester basin, and smaller midlake cyclonic eddies. With a west wind (most common direction), a well-defined westward flow in the middle of the lake separates an anticyclonic gyre in the north from a cyclonic gyre in the south. A review of numerical models shows that most models can capture general features of these observed patterns but do not always reproduce all details, especially in nearshore regions. A numerical model based on the Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code (EFDC), with a 200-m resolution in nearshore regions, is developed.
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Data Availability Statement
All numerical results that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
This work was implemented while the authors were funded by the US Geological Survey, CESU Grant [G15AS00064]. The authors acknowledge support from the University at Buffalo’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities and machinists for the consultation on the design and manufacture of several physical elements that were necessary for the physical modeling parts of this study. We would like to thank Jeremy Grush from LimnoTech, Ann Arbor, MI, for generating the horizontal grid. We would like to acknowledge the University at Buffalo Center of Computational Research for providing computational clusters for numerical simulations.
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Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 147 • Issue 8 • August 2021
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© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 19, 2020
Accepted: Mar 20, 2021
Published online: Jun 8, 2021
Published in print: Aug 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Nov 8, 2021
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