About the Lake Washington Real-time Temperature Simulation

DSI developed the Lake Washington Real-time Temperature as an example of a real-time data and modeling facility to serve the scientific community in Seattle, WA. The major goals of the model are to:

• Better understand the temperature in Lake Washington in real-time.
• Visualize meteorological impacts on temperature in Lake Washington.
• Raise awareness in the community about water quality issues.
• Help regulators understand tools that can be developed to solve water quality issues in Seattle, WA.

Features of the RT Model

• Automatic gathering of data from internet and sensors, interpret and store the data in a database.
• Automatic generation of inputs and daily simulations on a Windows OS workstation.
• Provide access to real-time visualization of observations and model outputs using a Web browser.
• Online 2D visualization and animations overlay on Google Maps and OpenLayers using NetCDF-UGRID.
• Support data extraction and visualization in time series plots, vertical and longitudinal profiles.

Numerical Model Driving the RT Model

The simulation engine core is EFDC+ (Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code), an open source, general-purpose modeling package which can simulate 1D, 2D, 3D flow, transport, and biogeochemical processes in surface water systems including rivers, lakes, estuaries, reservoirs, wetlands, and near-shore to shelf-scale coastal regions. DSI has developed EFDC+ with MPI/OMP Hybrid that supports multi-threading, streamlines the modeling process, generates netCDF-CF outputs and links to pre- and post-processing tool EFDC_Explorer.

Input Data for the RT Model

• Wind data: wind speed, direction hourly data from King County’s Lake Washington Buoy.
• Atmospheric data: pressure; air temperature; relative humidity; solar radiation from King County’s Lake Washington Buoy; cloud cover is retrieved automatically from Weather Underground. Rainfall is not considered.
• Flow boundaries: two sources are used, mainly King County, and USGS for Cedar River.
• Water temperature: hourly data from King County and 15 minutes from USGS for Cedar River.
• Water level: hourly data from USACE.

Model Results

• Water surface elevation
• Flow velocity
• Water temperature
• Bed temperature

Areas of Application

The system can be a powerful tool for water quality and environmental monitoring in lakes, reservoirs, rivers and streams, estuaries and coastal areas.