SELF v1.0: a minimal physical model for predicting time of freeze-up in lakes

Toffolon, Marco; Cortese, Luca; Bouffard, Damien

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-7527-2021

Articles | Volume 14, issue 12

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-7527-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Modelling inland waters in a changing climate (GMD/ESD/TC...

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-7527-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 14, issue 12

Model description paper

| Highlight paper

|

08 Dec 2021

Model description paper | Highlight paper |

| 08 Dec 2021

SELF v1.0: a minimal physical model for predicting time of freeze-up in lakes

Marco Toffolon, Luca Cortese, and Damien Bouffard

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-7527-2021-supplement

Data sets

Silvaplanersee_T-Mooring Damien Bouffard https://doi.org/10.25678/0000QQ

Sihlsee_T-Mooring Damien Bouffard https://doi.org/10.25678/0000MM

Silsersee_T-Mooring Damien Bouffard https://doi.org/10.25678/0000PP

St.Moritzersee_T-Mooring Damien Bouffard https://doi.org/10.25678/0000KK

Model code and software

SELF, v1.0 (https://github.com/marcotoffolon/SELF) Marco Toffolon, Luca Cortese, and Damien Bouffard https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5082374

Short summary

The time when lakes freeze varies considerably from year to year. A common way to predict it is to use negative degree days, i.e., the sum of air temperatures below 0 °C, a proxy for the heat lost to the atmosphere. Here, we show that this is insufficient as the mixing of the surface layer induced by wind tends to delay the formation of ice. To do so, we developed a minimal model based on a simplified energy balance, which can be used both for large-scale analyses and short-term predictions.