Basin-Scale Internal Waves Within the South ARM of the Great Salt Lake

Abstract

Basin-scale internal waves within the Great Salt Lake (GSL) have been investigated numerically. In particular, the Reynolds-averaged Navier—Stokes equations were solved to predict the internal basin-scale wave motion in the south arm of the GSL. Forcing of the wave motion was through surface stresses induced by a spatially uniform but temporally varying wind distribution. The brine distribution was initialized as an upper layer with salinity 120 ppt over a deep brine layer of salinity 240 ppt. The simulations were run for 1 month period with wind forcing data from the Salt Lake City International Airport for the months March, April, May, and June 2006. Results indicate the existence of a Kelvin wave propagating counterclockwise about the perimeter of the basin with a period of ∼24 h.