A One‐Dimensional Lake Model in ECCC's Land Surface Prediction System

Abstract

Abstract In most of Environment and Climate Change Canada's (ECCC) current operational systems, inland water physical processes are simulated using a simple water scheme. Water surface temperatures and ice cover fractions are updated daily using analyses. However, ECCC recognizes the need for interactive lakes in its weather and environmental prediction systems, such as those used to forecast surface conditions and floods. As a first step toward this goal, the current study evaluates the impact of the Canadian Small Lake Model (CSLM) in an offline context on surface water temperature, ice phenology and near‐surface atmospheric conditions. The use of CSLM increases lake surface temperatures and decreases its RMSE during ice‐free months, which has a direct impact on the 2‐m air temperature by reducing the cold bias observed in the simulation without CSLM, particularly over larger lakes. CSLM improves ice cover in subgrid lakes, while having a neutral impact on intermediate lakes. On large lakes, CSLM tends to degrade ice cover simulation in southernmost lakes, while improving ice cover in northernmost lakes. The increased lake ice cover in CSLM, particularly over subgrid lakes and in the northern latitudes, has a strong impact on humidity fluxes at the surface during wintertime with a near‐interruption of evapotranspiration over lakes. In summertime, increased water temperature with CSLM leads to a 38% increase in evapotranspiration. With these results, it is expected that the synergy of CSLM and lake‐related observations will improve the simulation and initialization of lake conditions in ECCC's systems.

Keywords

• lake model
• lake temperature
• lake ice