On the gravitational seiches of lake constance and their generation

Although the surface seiches of Lake Constance have been observed as early as 1549 and received serious scientific attention since 1893 in the classical work of Forel, they have only recently been investigated by modern hydrodynamical methods. It is the goal of this report to critically compare theoretical predictions of the periods and form of seiches with recent and historical observations as well as to examine the mechanisms of generation of these surface oscillations by means of applying measured atmospheric forcing in Lake Constance to a theoretical model. In the first part of this work, we review the findings of a large number of previous investigations, while the second part consists of a verification analysis of the model predictions of seiches. In the final part, we present a theory, predictions and observations of the excitation of seiches by arbitrary wind and barometric pressure gradient forcing.