Verification of Numerical Models of Lake Ontario: Part I. Circulation in Spring and Early Summer

Abstract Data from the 1972 International Field Year on Lake Ontario have been used to test the performance of three-dimensional hydrodynamical models of large lakes. The models vary with regard to computational details, but their common purpose is to predict water levels, currents and temperatures in the Great Lakes on the basis of prescribed atmospheric conditions. The period of observations dealt with in the present paper includes the passage of tropical storm Agnes during the latter part of June 1972. Data from the meteorological buoy network on Lake Ontario are combined with routine observations at first-order synoptic stations around the lake to obtain hourly values of wind-stress and pressure fields. Initial temperature distributions as a function of depth and horizontal coordinates are derived from quasi-synoptic ship cruises. Verification of model results is based on hourly values of water level data from stations on the perimeter of the lake and currents and temperatures measured by the buoy net...