Breeze effects at a large artificial lake: summer case study

Abstract

Natural lakes and big artificial reservoirs can affect the weather regime of surrounding areas but, usually, consideration of all aspects of this impact and their quantification is a difficult task. The Alqueva reservoir, the largest artificial lake in western Europe, located on the south-east of Portugal, was filled in 2004. It is a large natural laboratory that allows the study of changes in surface and in landscape and how they affect the weather in the region. This paper is focused on a 3-day case study, 22–24 July 2014, during which an intensive observation campaign was carried out. In order to quantify the breeze effects induced by the Alqueva reservoir, two simulations with the mesoscale atmospheric model Meso-NH coupled to the FLake freshwater lake model has been performed. The difference between the two simulations lies in the presence or absence of the reservoir on the model surface. Comparing the two simulation datasets, with and without the reservoir, net results of the lake impact were obtained. Magnitude of the impact on air temperature, relative humidity, and other atmospheric variables are shown. The clear effect of a lake breeze (5–7 m s−1) can be observed during daytime on distances up to 6 km away from the shores and up to 300 m above the surface. The lake breeze system starts to form at 09:00 UTC and dissipates at 18:00–19:00 UTC with the arrival of a larger-scale Atlantic breeze. The descending branch of the lake breeze circulation brings dry air from higher atmospheric layers (2–2.5 km) and redistributes it over the lake. It is also shown that despite its significant intensity the effect is limited to a couple of kilometres away from the lake borders.