FLake
is suitable for various applications. It can be used
as a lake parameterisation scheme in numerical weather
prediction (NWP), climate modelling, and other
numerical prediction systems for environmental
applications. It can be used as a single-column lake model
in a stand-alone mode, as a physical
module in models of lake ecosystems,
and as an
educational tool.
FLake
as a lake parameterisation scheme
in NWP and climate
models
As a lake parameterisation scheme FLake is implemented into the limited-area NWP models COSMO and
HIRLAM
and into the global NWP models ICON
and IFS.
Details
of the implementation into COSMO are given in Mironov
et al. (2010).
Since 15 December 2010 Flake is used operationally
at the German Weather Service (DWD) within
the COSMO-EU (Europe) configuration of the COSMO
model. Since 18 April 2012 FLake is operational
within the COSMO-DE (Germany) which is a basic
COSMO-model configuration of the DWD ensemble
prediction system at "convection permitting"
resolution (horizontal mesh size is ca. 2.8 km). Since
6 March 2012 FLake is operational within HIRLAM at
the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI). Since 20
January 2015 FLake is operational at DWD within
ICON. Since 12 May 2015 FLake is overational at the
European
Centre for Medium-Range
Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)
within IFS.
FLake is also implemented into the UK
Met Office Unified
Model, into the NWP model suite of Meteo
France, into the Weather
Research and Forecasting model (WRF),
and
into the climate models CLM (the CLM
Community), RCA (SMHI
– Swedish Meteorological
and Hydrological Institute), and the Canadian
Regional Climate Model (Environment
Canada). FLake is incorporated as
a lake parameterisation module into the
surface schemes HTESSEL (ECMWF),
SURFEX (Meteo France), and JULES (UK Met
Office/Universities).
In order to be incorporated into an NWP or climate
model as a lake parameterisation scheme, FLake
requires a number of two-dimensional
external-parameter fields. These are, first of all,
the fields of lake fraction (area fraction of a
given grid box of an NWP or climate model covered by
lake water that must be compatible with the land-sea
mask used) and of lake depth. These
external-parameter fields should be generated using
one or the other data set. To this end, a global
lake-depth data set is developed (Kourzeneva
2009, Kourzeneva
2010, Kourzeneva
et al. 2012, Choulga
et
al. 2014). See
"External-parameter
data sets" for further information (click
the respective menu button in the menu window). Apart
from lake fraction and lake depth, other external
parameters are required, e.g. optical
characteristics of the lake water. These are
assigned their default values offered by FLake (see
"Useful hints"). For lack of empirical data
on the optical characteristics of water,
no data set with global or regional coverage is
currently available. Hence the default FLake
estimates is a recommended choice at the moment for
NWP and climate modelling.
Single-column
lake modelling,
ecosystem modelling,
education
These
and other FLake applications are mentioned in the list of
FLake users. Click the respective menu button in the menu
window.