Sensitivity of the Parameterizations of Vertical Mixing and Radiative Heat Fluxes on the Seasonal Evolution of the Thermal Structure of Lake Erie

A sensitivity analysis of the parameterizations of vertical mixing and radiative fluxes on the seasonal evolution of Lake Erie's thermal structure is performed using the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model (MITgcm) and the General Estuarine Transport Model (GETM). The models have the same horizontal resolution and are forced with observed meteorological data from April to October of 2002 and 2008. For turbid waters like Lake Erie, the three-band model for the parameterization of downward shortwave radiation produces more accurate temperatures in the thermocline and less error in simulating the mixed-layer depths than the widely used two-band model. Although the two models differ in vertical and horizontal mixing, numerical methods, and vertical discretization, they produced qualitatively comparable results. Comparison with observations shows that the models can reproduce the time evolution of the lake temperature reasonably well. The MITgcm and the GETM with the Mellor-Yamada level 2.5 (MY2.5) closure produce a deeper mixed layer than observed at a station located in the eastern basin, causing large errors in simulating the temperature in the thermocline while the GETM, using a turbulence scheme called “gen,” reproduces a mixed layer in better agreement with observations. The mixed-layer obtained with the k-ε closure is between those obtained with gen and MY2.5. The error in simulating the mixed-layer depths and the thermocline temperature at a station located in the central basin using the gen closure and the GETM was about 2°C lower than that obtained by the K-Profile Parameterization mixing scheme of the MITgcm. The models simulated a lake-wide anticyclonic circulation occupying the southwest part of the central basin but showed distinct differences in simulating gyres in the northwestern part of the central basin and in the eastern basin of the lake. The signature of a basin-scale Poincaré wave observed in the current data is also well represented by the two models.