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Contribution of high and low frequency internal waves to boundary turbulence in a lake
  • Danielle Wain,
  • Chris Rehmann
Danielle Wain

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Chris Rehmann
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Abstract

The interior of lakes is often quiescent and most of the mixing in a lake occurs at the sloping boundaries, where wind-induced internal waves create turbulence (which leads to mixing) through interactions with the lakebed. To predict the occurrence and strength of turbulence in terms of meteorological forcing and stratification, we investigated the dependence of internal wave type, and their contribution to turbulence on the slope, on the Lake number, which compares the stabilizing tendency of stratification to the destabilizing tendency of the wind. Three thermistor chains and a meteorological station were deployed in West Okoboji Lake (length ~ 9 km, max. depth ~ 40 m) for two weeks. A wavelet analysis was conducted to determine time periods when different wave frequencies were excited, with particular focus on the first vertical mode seiche, the critical frequency with respect to the stratification and slope, and high frequency waves in the band of 1-10 times the buoyancy frequency. We measured the velocities in the bottom boundary layer (BBL) with a high resolution acoustic current profiler (2 MHz Nortek HR Aquadopp) and then computed the turbulent dissipation rate using the structure function method, which uses the spatial correlations of velocity along a beam to estimate the dissipation. This generated a two week time series of turbulent dissipation rate in the BBL which was then compared to the wavelet amplitudes. During the deployment, a strong daily wind forced near constant internal wave activity. The theoretical period of the first vertical mode seiche was ~17 hours, but the diurnal wind forcing interfered with free oscillation of this mode. Although not an obvious natural frequency of the lake, waves of the critical frequency (which had a period of ~11 hours) were activated throughout the measurement period. High-frequency waves were observed in the thermistor chain near the slope at the lowest Lake number wind events. The turbulence observed on the boundary was highest during these events, implying that the low frequency seiching was less important than higher frequency motions in driving turbulence on the slope.