Abstract
In northern and mountainous regions of Europe lakes are frozen in winter. The ice season can be up to seven months long and the thickness of the ice can reach 100 cm. The physical characteristics of the water under the ice are very different to that found in the open water. The ice cover stabilizes the thermal characteristics of the lake, the surface water is kept at the freezing point and there is very little vertical transfer of heat. In spring, solar radiation provides a strong downward flux of heat, the ice melts and any impurities contained in the ice are released into the water column. In small lakes, the covering of ice stops any transfer of momentum from the wind to the water body. In large lakes, the ice may break and give rise to some episodic movement. In shallow lakes the bottom sediment forms a significant store of heat that can influence their winter thermodynamics (e.g., Golosov et al., 2006). The volumetric changes associated with the formation of ice are of no consequence in deep lakes but in shallow lakes there may be substantial relative reductions in the volume of liquid water.
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Acknowledgements
This chapter is a result from the project CLIME (Climate Impact on European Lakes), supported under contract EVK1-CT-2002-00121 by the Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development (EESD) Programme of the 5th EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. I am grateful to my collaborators, in particular to the project leader Dr. Glen George, the modelling team leader Prof. Martin Dokulil, the ice team members Ms. Caixing Wang, Dr. Keguang Wang and Mr. Jari Uusikivi, and close partners Prof. Lauri Arvola, Dr. Thorsten Blenckner, Dr. Marko Järvinen, Dr. David Livingstone and Ms. Irina Persson. I am also grateful to Dr. Helgi Arst, Mr. Ants Erm, Dr. Timo Huttula, Mr. Masao Ishikawa, Dr. Anu Reinart, Prof. Kalevi Salonen, Prof. Kunio Shirasawa, Mr. Toru Takatsuka, Dr. Arkady Terzhevik and Prof. emer. Juhani Virta for fruitful discussions, advice and help. NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis data were provided through the NOAA Climate Diagnostics Center (http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/) for the mechanics model simulations.
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Leppäranta, M. (2010). Modelling the Formation and Decay of Lake Ice. In: George, G. (eds) The Impact of Climate Change on European Lakes. Aquatic Ecology Series, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2945-4_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2945-4_5
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