Premium
Using a nowcasting system to better understand lake water dynamics
Author(s) -
Kimura Nobuaki,
Wu Chin H.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
lakes and reservoirs: research and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.296
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1440-1770
pISSN - 1320-5331
DOI - 10.1111/lre.12239
Subject(s) - nowcasting , downwelling , acoustic doppler current profiler , environmental science , water column , rip current , stratification (seeds) , current (fluid) , water quality , upwelling , meteorology , hydrology (agriculture) , geology , oceanography , geography , shore , ecology , seed dormancy , botany , germination , geotechnical engineering , dormancy , biology
Constraints in conventional field observations, such as measurement stations and instruments, human resources and occasional inclement weather conditions, hinder our understanding of the biological, chemical and physical processes in aquatic systems. Accordingly, the present study developed an integrated monitoring and prediction system called WISconsin nowCASTing (WIS‐CAST) to better predict spatial and temporal physical lake dynamics (e.g., water movements and temperatures). The system uses either present or past observations from instrumented buoys equipped with flow, water temperature and meteorological measurement sensors, integrating the observed data (i.e., in situ data) with high‐tech data communication tools, databases, a three‐dimensional hydrodynamic model and visualization tools. Acoustic Doppler current profiler in the system with radio wave two‐way communication covering a distance of 1,000 m also was utilized in the present study. The WIS‐CAST was deployed in early August 2006 in Trout Lake, a mid‐sized lake Wisconsin. It was maintained until late October 2006 as a local‐level, compacted nowcasting system to show temporal and spatial distributions of water temperature and movement in the water column and the entire lake. The lake dynamics affected by the Coriolis force for a state of summer stratification, a unique event of upwelling/downwelling and a process of overturn, all monitored and predicted during the measurement period with lake current and water temperature distributions, is presented herein. The WIS‐CAST, which was used as a system to assist lake management (e.g., water quality control), indicated the chemical dynamics were caused by a physical process, such as nutrient upwelling and vertical mixing of nutrients.