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GLERL CLIMATE CHANGE AND VARIABILITY RESEARCH PROGRAM
General Background
The Great Lakes region is an excellent location for climate change research because of the existence of physical, biological, and chemical measurable signals, long-term records, ongoing physical process studies, and the importance of the resource. The Great Lakes provide a multibillion dollar sport and commercial fishery, fresh drinking water for a large segment of the US population, and a multibillion dollar commercial transportation waterway. Large lakes, including the Laurentian Great Lakes, are "closed systems" with boundaries on spatial scales that make them more tractable for study than the oceans. Many of the environmental conditions and processes related to climate that make oceanic systems important for studying climate change and variability are also present in the Great Lakes and can be studied with smaller logistical budgets.
Recently, GLERL participated in the U.S. Global Climate Research Program, using two general circulation (atmospheric) models to assess the impact of a doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere on the levels and flows in the Great Lakes.
Other climate modeling tasks will involve using a coupled hydrosphere-atmosphere model to study the interactions between climate, land use (vegetation type), and human activities in East Africa.
The timing and extent of ice cover on the Great Lakes impacts many aspects of the regional economy by complicating commercial navigation, hydropower production, cooling water intakes, and damaging shoreline structures. Ice cover also affects the water balance and lake levels by reducing evaporation. A computer accessible database is being created from a compilation of historical Great Lakes ice charts. In a separate effort, the combined affects of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on winter severity in the Great Lakes will be examined. This will involve correlation of the various combinations of the phases (positive or negative) and magnitudes of the PDO and of ENSO with winter severity over the Great Lakes over the past century.
click here for brochure with general information about Great Lakes ice cover
click here for brochure with general information on low water levels
Last updated: 2004-03-25 mbl