Observations, Evaporation and Preliminary Modelling of Over-Lake Meteorology on Large African Lakes

Water quality models of lakes require accurate specification of the advective and turbulent transport fields. These are usually obtained from lake hydrodynamic models. In turn, hydrodynamic models require accurate specification of meteorological forcing. Uncertain specification of meteorological forcing over large lakes is one of the main reasons for the lack of correspondence between three-dimensional hydrodynamic models and observations of lake currents, temperatures and water levels. This is especially the case for intermontane lakes where sheltering effects of the surrounding topography disturb the air flow and generate such other mesoscale meteorological features as slope winds which can reinforce lake breezes.