NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Great Lakes Currents
From: Bill B
Date: 2006 Jun 7, 18:10 -0400
From: Bill B
Date: 2006 Jun 7, 18:10 -0400
Recently ran across the following site: http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/glcfs/ One bit of information it provides is surface current. I have read that there can be wind induced surface currents given sufficient fetch and duration in the order of -.1 to 0.4 kt, but that is only a couple of percent of velocity, and bears off the wind direction due to the Coriolis effect. I was surprised to see currents in the 1 kt range (with a 2.8 kt scale, on Lake Michigan, changing direction rapidly and dramatacally over 24-hour periods. Initially I thought some sort of thermal affect until I noticed the changes over 3-hour periods, then day-to-day. Also noticed that the water levels at N & S ends of Lake Michigan can varying by an inch. Given the rate of change, could it be some sort of set up, and small seiche(s) at work? Bill
