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  4. Flushing the Lake Littoral Region: The Interaction of Differential Cooling and Mild Winds
 
research article

Flushing the Lake Littoral Region: The Interaction of Differential Cooling and Mild Winds

Ramon, Cintia L.
•
Ulloa, Hugo N.  
•
Doda, Tomy  
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March 1, 2022
Water Resources Research

The interaction of a uniform cooling rate at the lake surface with sloping bathymetry efficiently drives cross-shore water exchanges between the shallow littoral and deep interior regions. The faster cooling rate of the shallows results in the formation of density-driven currents, known as thermal siphons, that flow downslope until they intrude horizontally at the base of the surface mixed layer. Existing parameterizations of the resulting buoyancy-driven cross-shore transport assume calm wind conditions, which are rarely observed in lakes and thereby restrict their applicability. Here, we examine how moderate winds (less than or similar to 5 m s(-1)) affect this convective cross-shore transport. We derive simple analytical solutions that we further test against realistic three-dimensional numerical hydrodynamic simulations of an enclosed stratified basin subject to uniform and steady surface cooling rate and cross-shore winds. We show cross-shore winds modify the convective circulation, stopping or even reversing it in the upwind littoral region and enhancing the cross-shore exchange in the downwind region. The analytical parameterization satisfactorily predicted the magnitude of the simulated offshore unit-width discharges in the upwind and downwind littoral regions. Our scaling expands the previous formulation to a regime where both wind and buoyancy forces drive cross-shore discharges of similar magnitude. This range is defined by the non-dimensional Monin-Obukhov length scale, chi(MO): 0.1 less than or similar to chi(MO) less than or similar to 0.5. The information needed to evaluate the scaling formula can be readily obtained from a traditional set of in situ observations.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1029/2021WR030943
Web of Science ID

WOS:000834099100018

Author(s)
Ramon, Cintia L.
Ulloa, Hugo N.  
Doda, Tomy  
Bouffard, Damien
Date Issued

2022-03-01

Publisher

AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION

Published in
Water Resources Research
Volume

58

Issue

3

Article Number

e2021WR030943

Subjects

Environmental Sciences

•

Limnology

•

Water Resources

•

Environmental Sciences & Ecology

•

Marine & Freshwater Biology

•

convective exchange flows

•

surface waters

•

boundary-layer

•

driven

•

circulation

•

density

•

shore

•

temperature

•

pollution

•

stress

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
APHYS  
Available on Infoscience
August 15, 2022
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/190049
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