Abstract
The relationships between the evaporation from a medium size (168.7km2) Lake Kinneret (Northern Israel), and its governing synoptic factors are well demonstrated during the summer of 2010. During July-August the daily temperature of the air and water surface were 2-4°C higher, the daily wind over the lake was 80% weaker, and the evaporation from the lake was 5% lower than the long-term July-August mean. In this study, we explore the impact of the regional and local synoptic-scale atmospheric conditions on the evaporation from the lake during exceptionally hot days in the mid-summer months (July-August). The factors that were found to be correlated with the lake evaporation are the temperatures at 850hPa (negative) and 500hPa (positive), the sea level pressure difference between Northern Egypt and Armenia (positive), and the height of the marine inversion (positive). Synoptic analysis indicates that two conditions are responsible for the reduction of the Mediterranean Sea Breeze (MSB) during exceptionally hot days, and consequently to the reduction of evaporation from the lake. First, the weakening of the permanent synoptic Etesian winds, which otherwise supports the inland penetration of the MSB; and second, the descent of the marine inversion to a height below the topographic ridge of the Galilee Mountains upwind of the study area, which blocks the Marine Sea Breeze from reaching Lake Kinneret.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 264-275 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Journal of Hydrology |
Volume | 528 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Sep 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank Yuri Lechinsky and Miki Shlichter from KLL-IOLR for the buildup and the continuous maintenance of the Lake Kinneret Meteorological stations and database. The near-surface meteorological data for this paper are available from this database ( miki@ocean.org.il ), which is supported by continuous funding from the Israeli Water Authority. We thank Ari Posner from the Hydrologic Research Center, San Diego for his constructive comments. Upper air data was received from the database of the Israeli Meteorological Service (IMS) at Bet-Dagan, Israel ( ims@ims.gov.il ). The sea level pressure (SLP) data at the neighboring region were extracted from the NCEP-NCAR reanalysis archive ( http://esrl.noaa.gov/psd ). Figs. 4 and 5 were derived through the NOAA site for daily composite maps http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/composites/day/ . This research was supported by a grant from the Israeli Science Foundation (Grant # 597/13 ).
Keywords
- Atmospheric stability
- Lake evaporation
- Latent heat flux
- Mediterranean Sea Breeze, Lake Kinneret
- Synoptic variables