Modal decomposition of the baroclinic response to wind in elongated lakes

• Main Author: Imam, Yehya Emad
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/39953

The baroclinic response to wind is examined in narrow elongated lakes. The main objective is to link the excitation and modulation of baroclinic modes to lake bathymetry and stratification, temporal and spatial characteristics of wind forcing, and damping. Three lake bathymetries are examined which represent 1) variable-depth single basins with straight thalweg, 2) two-basin lakes with straight thalweg, and 3) two-basin lakes with arms at which the thalweg bends sharply. The bathymetries are examined using idealized lake forms as well as data from two Canadian lakes. Modal analysis and a three-dimensional hydrodynamic numerical model are used to analyze the baroclinic response. Also, a modal-based forced model is developed to simulate the decoupled modal responses to wind and provide a direct link between lake and forcing characteristics and modal composition of the response. This study shows that coupling between wind-forcing spatial structure and bathymetry determines which modes are excited, while wind-forcing temporal patterns modulate the magnitude of excited modes. It is found that, when wind is near-uniform, the first horizontal mode, H1, dominates the response regardless of bathymetry, because the near-uniform wind couples with the spatial distribution of layer flow for H1. In sub-basins separated by geometric constrictions (sills and contractions) or sharp bends in the thalweg relative to wind direction, the wind induces local metalimnetic tilts that are superimposed on the domain-wide H1 tilt. The sub-basin tilts are attributable to higher horizontal modes which are equivalent to the H1 modes of the decoupled sub-basins. Furthermore, this study demonstrates the following: 1) interbasin exchange due to H1 shifts from two to more layers due to interaction of vertical modes, 2) geometric constrictions result in strong damping of H1 which causes high forcing-response coherence and broadens the resonance bandwidth, and 3) along-thalweg depth variability in single basins increases the number of excited modes and localizes the interface shear for asymmetric basins and causes the opposite effects for symmetric basins. The findings of this study contribute to understanding the baroclinic response to wind in lakes of complex bathymetry.