Modeling Ice Regime of Lake Erie

A thermodynamic model for ice formation, growth and dissipation was developed to simulate the ice regime of Lake Erie. The model utilizes the two-dimensional convective dispersion equation for the heat balance of the body of water and the interfacial heat exchange equations to account for the various heat exchange processes at the air-water, air-ice, and ice-water interfaces. The hydrodynamic transport of heat by the lake currents was approximated by computing a steady-state current field using a vertically-integrated equation of motion. The climatological data recorded at Buffalo, N.Y., for the winter of 1975-76 were used in the heat exchange computations. Although the model has not been verified nor sufficiently calibrated, the general patterns of the two-dimensionally displayed computed results are in close agreement with the limited observations.