Some Characteristics of Nearshore Currents along the North Shore of Lake Ontario

Abstract

Abstract In three periods during 1970 representative of spring, summer and fall, the horizontal currents off Oshawa in Lake Ontario were measured at distances of 3, 6, 11 and 16 km offshore. All records were spectrally analyzed for an equal number of 2-hr values within each period. Within each season, there was a tendency for the total variance to descrease with depth and with distance offshore. Total energy at any given distance offshore was lowest in spring and highest in fall. At distances between 6 and 11 km offshore in the summer period, there was an abrupt increase offshore in the percent of total variance contained in rotary-type motion near the theoretical inertial period. The offshore increase in other seasons was much smaller in magnitude. For all seasons, flow was predominantly westward. Nearshore currents reversed from west to east flow about 6 hr after the wind changed, but farther offshore the reversal lagged the wind by about 12 hr in summer and 36 hr in fall. These observations supplemente...