One of the pressing problems in environmental research and applications is a clear understanding and an accurate description of physical processes in lakes. As a step on the road to handling this problem, a lake model FLake was developed and favourably tested in the framework of the INTAS Project 01-2132. FLake is intended for use as a lake parameterisation scheme in numerical weather prediction (NWP), climate modelling and other numerical prediction systems for environmental applications, as a stand-alone lake model, as a physical module in models of aquatic ecosystems, and as an educational tool. The goal of the present innovation project was to promote a widespread use of FLake for research, education, environmental applications, and decision-making. The results achieved within the framework of the project are summarised as follows.
(i) The lake-depth data set is developed and put at the users' disposal. The data set contains mean depths of a large number of European lakes and of major lakes of the other parts of the World. The maximum depth and the surface area are given whenever available.
(ii) The single-column test suite is developed and put at the users' disposal. The suite incorporates three cases that can be run with a pre-compiled FLake binary for Windows. Each case is provided with a description and with a few plots showing results to be expected with the reference set-up.
(iii) The user interface for offline FLake applications for education and research is developed. The interface provides a user-friendly environment to perform single-column numerical experiments with FLake.
(iv) The online version of FLake is developed. It allows one to calculate a climatological-mean state of an arbitrary lake on the globe, using geographical co-ordinates, a mean lake depth and a rough estimate of the lake water transparency as input parameters.
(v) The scientific documentation of the lake model FLake is prepared. It presents an overview of previous studies, a detailed description of the underlying physical ideas, a complete set of model equations, and the estimates of the model constants and disposable parameters. The technical documentation of FLake (synopsis of FLake routines) is prepared. It presents a description of the program units of the lake model, including the atmospheric surface-layer parameterisation scheme. A number of hints as to the application of FLake are formulated. These hints help users to apply FLake, in both the stand-alone mode and as a lake parameterisation scheme in numerical prediction systems for environmental applications, to avoid the use of FLake beyond its limits of applicability, and to interpret the model results. A description of the lake-depth data set is given directly in the header section of the data-set ASCII file.
(vi) A widespread utilisation of the innovation for education, research and applications is achieved through presentations and lectures at exhibitions, conferences, symposia and workshops, through publications of results, and through the internet. The number of users of the innovation increased considerably as a result of the project implementation. The FLake web page (http://lakemodel.net, or its mirror http://nwpi.krc.karelia.ru/flake) is developed and optimised. It provides a convenient access to the FLake computer code, lake-depth data set, documentation, test cases, user interface for offline FLake applications, and the online FLake version.
(vii) FLake is implemented into the limited-area NWP model COSMO, it is on the way into the NWP model HIRLAM (the implementation is almost completed), into the UK Met Office Unified Model, and into the NWP model suite of Meteo France. It is implemented into the regional climate models RCA and CLM. First steps are made towards coupling of FLake with the Canadian Regional Climate Model. FLake is used as a lake parameterisation module in the surface schemes TESSEL, SURFEX and JULES. In view of high popularity of FLake within the environmental modelling community, an international workshop on parameterisation of lakes in numerical weather prediction and climate modelling is organised. The aim of the workshop is to join environmental modellers dealing with the parameterisation of lakes in order to share their experience, to review the state of art, and to discuss challenging problems, strategy of further development, tasks and plans.
(viii) The innovation is used to disseminate knowledge in developing countries. The lake model FLake, the data sets required to apply FLake, and the product documentation are extensively used by the RSHU students in their studies towards bachelor's and master's degrees.
The innovation exploitation has a large positive environmental, technological and socio-economic impact through the improved quality of NWP, climate modelling and aquatic ecosystem modelling, as well as through the use of the project results for educational purposes, decision making and dissemination of knowledge. The socio-economic utility of the project results is of particular value in view of current and future climate change.
Keywords: Numerical Weather Prediction, Climate Modelling, Lake Modelling, Atmosphere-Lake Interaction