Deriving an effective lake depth from satellite lake surface temperature data: A feasibility study with MODIS data

Title
Deriving an effective lake depth from satellite lake surface temperature data: A feasibility study with MODIS data
Technical memorandum
Date Published
12/2009
Secondary Title
ECMWF Technical Memoranda
Number
609
Author
Gianpaolo Balsamo
Emanuel Dutra
V.M. Stepanenko
P. Viterbo
P.M. Miranda
D. Mironov
Publisher
ECMWF
Abstract Modelling lakes in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) is important to produce accurate evaporation rates and surface temperature forecasts. Lake depth is a crucial external parameter for the implementation of lake models into NWP systems, since it controls the dynamical range of lake temperature amplitudes on diurnal to seasonal time scales. However, a global lake-depth dataset does not exist at present. A novel method to derive an effective lake depth on the basis of the remotely-sensed lake water-surface temperature (LWST) is presented. A technique is proposed to adjust a simple two-layer Fresh-water Lake model (FLake) depth such that simulated annual cycle of LWST matches satellite-based LWST climatology as closely as possible. The method is applied to 47 European lakes and the results show convergence of the solution. Merits and limitations of this approach are discussed. Preliminary validation of a derived bathymetry of the American Great Lakes is presented.
URL https://www.ecmwf.int/en/elibrary/73559-deriving-effective-lake-depth-satellite-lake-surface-temperature-data-feasibility
DOI 10.21957/be525ccu
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