Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Neil F. Laird, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Geoscience

 

Research Interests

Although a well-developed conceptual model of lake-effect snow storms has been formed, there are numerous important areas of scientific inquiry related to lake-effect snow storms that remain. Lake-effect systems provide an excellent opportunity to significantly contribute to understanding in the areas of boundary layer meteorology, cloud and precipitation physics, mesoscale dynamics, and the connection between mesoscale processes and climate variability. We are currently investigating several areas of lake-effect snow storms at Hobart & William Smith Colleges. They include:

· The investigation of lake-effect systems associated with small mid-latitude lakes, such as the New York State Finger Lakes and Lake Champlain

· The investigation of connections between small-lake lake-effect systems and climate variability

· The influence of inhomogeneous ice cover on the development of lake-effect boundary layers and snow storms

Lake-Effect Snow Studies

Seasonal and rapid variations in Great Lakes ice cover are influential in several areas, such as shipping navigation, hydroelectric systems, Great Lakes ecology, recreation, and winter weather forecasting. While short-term variability is applicable to numerous areas, most previous Great Lakes ice cover research has been concerned with identifying long-term, inter-annual trends in ice cycles. The studies being conducted at Hobart & William Smith Colleges seek to understand the variability of rapid change events in ice cover concentration that occur within the annual ice cycle and the weather conditions associated with these events.

Great Lakes Ice Cover Variability

Coastal zones of the United States are crucially important to many aspects of society. More than half of the United States population lives within 80 km of a coastline and greater than 40 million people reside in the Great Lakes region. There has been recent interest within the meteorological community in examining and understanding the connections between mesoscale systems and climate variability. Great Lakes lake breezes provide an exceptional opportunity to examine this issue. Lake-breeze research currently being conducted at Hobart & William Smith Colleges seeks to quantify the inter-annual, intra-seasonal, and spatial variations in Great Lakes lake-breeze occurrence and determine their impact on near-shore climate conditions.

Few studies have examined the influence of the warm-season marine boundary layers on convective systems and the precipitation distribution in the Great Lakes region. In fact, the forecasting community continues to assert that one of the most significant summer forecast challenges in the Great Lakes region is the impact, if any, that the marine layer will have on an existing convective system as it crosses a lake. Research currently being conducted at Hobart & William Smith Colleges seeks to address the gap of knowledge on this issue by understanding the relationship between the evolution of convective systems and marine layer stability and environmental conditions.

Lake Breeze Circulations & Climates

The primary energy source for the generation of large-scale internal gravity waves in lakes is strongly linked to the forcing applied to the lake surface by the wind field. In a stratified lake, winds can result in increased surface water levels at the downwind portion of the lake. This elevated surface creates a pressure force that is balanced by a higher (lower) thermocline height in the upwind (downwind) region of the lake. The first mode response to a relaxation of the wind is a basin-scale standing wave or internal seiche. Even for wind events not of sufficient duration to produce a true standing wave, a thermocline displacement is often observed, thereby generating basin-scale internal waves. Research currently being conducted at Hobart & William Smith Colleges focuses on examining the relationship of the variability of internal wave activity in Seneca Lake, located in the Finger Lakes region of New York State, to atmospheric wind forcing and parameters associated with regional scale weather systems.

Finger Lakes Studies - Internal Lake Circulations