Surface energy balance calculations for small northern lakes

Abstract

An energy balance model is used to determine diurnal surface energy balance components for three different sized high-latitude Canadian lakes in the Mackenzie River Basin (MRB) during the open water seasons of 2000, 2001, and 2002. Surface net radiation is derived from the component fluxes of the radiation balance. Turbulent heat fluxes are calculated using the aerodynamic method with input from local meteorological stations and experimentally derived drag coefficients. Lake heat storage, determined as a residual of the surface energy balance, is used together with measured water temperature profiles to calculate the daily mixing layer depth. The model uses readily available meteorological inputs for radiation calculations. Verification results for surface energy balance components show mean bias error (MBE) generally less than 5% of the mean measured daily fluxes and root mean square error (RMSE) less than 38%, which decreases to less than 16% for 10-day averaging periods. The model tends to overestimate net radiation by 7% and latent and sensible heat fluxes by about 4% and 1%, respectively, on average. Inferred slab layer depths indicate that the shallowest lake was isothermal while the deeper lakes showed temporal variations as expected. Copyright © 2006 Royal Meteorological Society.