Abstract
THIS book records what is probably the most complete investigation yet made of the effect of winds and atmospheric pressure on the slope of the surface of great sheets of water. It deals with Lakes Erie and Michigan, which are large and of fairly irregular outline and bed-contour, and are situated in a region where the meteorological conditions are well observed. Continuous records of water-level are afforded by several gauges on each lake, designed to smooth out the local wave-fluctuations. Mr. Hayford has constructed an elaborate theory connecting the daily change of level of the water surface, as revealed by each of these gauges, with the north and west components of barometric gradient on the current and preceding days; proportionality factors, varying with the station, are derived by the method of least squares from large numbers of observations. The winds, being more rapidly variable than the barometric gradient, are considered from hour to hour; the hourly change of level at any gauge station is related to the hourly changes in the values of a certain function of the wind-velocity during the hour in question and the following hour; the said function is derived partly by theoretical reasoning. The numerical constants of the theory have been worked out in great detail, in order that the real changes of content of the lakes may be derived from the gauge-readings with sufficient accuracy to enable the evaporation from the surface to be estimated in varying circumstances.
Effects of Winds and of Barometric Pressures on the Great Lakes.
John F.
Hayford
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Effects of Winds and of Barometric Pressures on the Great Lakes . Nature 111, 45 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/111045a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/111045a0