Modal analysis for strongly stratified lakes was extended to obtain a better understanding of the dynamics of the basin-scale motions. By viewing the basin-scale motions as a superposition of modes, that have distinct periods and three-dimensional structures, the method provides a conceptual understanding for the excitation, evolution, and damping of the basin-scale motions. Once the motion has been decomposed into modes, their evolution and energetics may be extracted from hydrodynamic simulation results and field data. The method was applied to Lake Biwa, Japan, and Lake Kinneret, Israel, and used for a theoretical study. The real lake applications showed that winds excited basin-scale motions that had a surface layer velocity structure similar to the wind stress pattern. Three-dimensional hydrodynamics simulations of Lake Biwa indicated that most of the energy input from winds was partitioned into the internal waves that decayed within a few days. The gyres, on the other hand, received much less energy but dominated the dynamics during calm periods due to their slow damping. Analyses of field data from Lake Kinneret suggested that the internal waves, excited by the strong winds every afternoon, were damped over a few days primarily due to bottom friction. Theoretical investigations of damping mechanisms of internal waves revealed that bottom friction induced a velocity anomaly at the top of the boundary layer that drained energy from the nearly inviscid interior by a combination of internal wave cancelling and spin-down. These results indicate that gyres induce long-term horizontal transport near the surface and internal waves transfer energy from winds to near-bottom mixing. Modal structure of dominant basin-scale internal waves can induce large heterogeneity of nearbottom mass transfer processes. The method presented here provides a tool to determine how basin-scale motions impact on biogeochemical processes in stratified lakes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/234332 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Shimizu, Kenji |
| Publisher | University of Western Australia. Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics, University of Western Australia. Centre for Water Research |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Kenji Shimizu, http://www.itpo.uwa.edu.au/UWA-Computer-And-Software-Use-Regulations.html |
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