Work Description

Date: May 16, 2025

Dataset Title: Upwellings, Thermal Structure and Circulation in Lake Erie: Sensitivity to Wind Stress Curl and Vertical Mixing

Dataset Creators: D.Beletsky, R.Beletsky, M.Rowe

Dataset Contact: Dmitry Beletsky [email protected]

Funding: NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science Competitive Research Program award NA16NOS4780209

Key Points:
- Wind stress curl modified basin-wide circulation, coastal currents and upwelling in Lake Erie
- Kelvin wave was reported on the south shore of Lake Erie for the first time

Research Overview:
Reliable prediction of hypoxic events in the coastal ocean and lakes depends to a large degree on the ability of hydrodynamic models to accurately simulate nearshore circulation and thermal structure. With focus on the hypoxia-prone south shore of Lake Erie, temperature and currents were measured in the central basin in 2017-2019. Major upwelling events along the south shore were identified and linked with occurrence of strong, sustained wind from the northeast (NE). A three-dimensional FVCOM-based hydrodynamic model was able to predict upwelling events along the south shore reasonably well but the surface mixed layer and thermocline depth were shallower than in observations. It was found that basin-scale wind stress curl (WSC) transformed canonic two-gyre circulation in the uniform NE wind case into a single gyre circulation causing both alongshore and cross-shore current reversal that modified coastal upwelling/downwelling. Observational evidence of Kelvin waves on the south shore was found for the first time. Kelvin wave speed in the model was underestimated. Model runs with enhanced vertical mixing improved predictions of mixed layer and thermocline depth and near-bottom dissolved oxygen but also caused additional diffusion of thermocline.

Methodology:
The data are model output from hydrodynamic simulations conducted with the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM) version 3.2.0.

Files contained here:

The folders contain model output based on each simulation conducted. Each folder contains 13 netcdf files covering 1 simulation year. The folders and simulations are described below:

1) 2017_HRRR: model run for 2017, HRRR forcing
2) 2018_HRRR: model run for 2018, HRRR forcing
3) 2019_HRRR: model run for 2019, HRRR forcing
4) 2019_HRRRX: model run for 2019, HRRRX forcing
5) 2019_INTERP: model run for 2019, INTERP forcing

6) 2017_HRRR_uniformC3: model run for 2017, forcing based on south shore location
7) 2017_HRRR_uniformPG: model run for 2017, forcing based on north shore location
8) 2018_HRRR_uniformC3: model run for 2018, forcing based on south shore location
9) 2018_HRRR_uniformPG: model run for 2018, forcing based on north shore location

10) 2019_HRRRX_W: model run for 2019, HRRRX forcing, mixing enhancement due to internal and surface waves

11) 2019_HRRRX_Zo: model run for 2019, HRRRX forcing, mixing enhancement due to variable surface roughness

12) 2019_HRRRX_ZoW: model run for 2019, HRRRX forcing, mixing enhancement due to variable surface roughness, internal and surface waves

13) 2019_HRRRX_ZoS: model run for 2019, HRRRX forcing , mixing enhancement due to variable surface roughness and increased wind speed

Related publication:
Beletsky, D., R.Beletsky, M.Rowe (2025). Upwellings, Thermal Structure and Circulation in Lake Erie: Sensitivity to Wind Stress Curl and Vertical Mixing. Forthcoming.

Use and Access:
This data set is made available under a Creative Commons Public Domain license (CC0 1.0).

To Cite Data:
Beletsky, D., R.Beletsky, M.Rowe (2025). Upwellings, Thermal Structure and Circulation in Lake Erie: Sensitivity to Wind Stress Curl and Vertical Mixing [Data set]. University of Michigan - Deep Blue. https://