Date of Award

12-2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Legacy Department

Mechanical Engineering

Committee Chair/Advisor

Dr. John R. Saylor

Committee Member

Dr. Nigel B. Kaye

Committee Member

Dr. Richard Miller

Abstract

Satellite measurements of water surface temperature can benefit several environmental ap-plications such as predictions of lake evaporation, meteorological forecasts, and predictions of lake overturning events, among others. However, limitations on the temporal resolution of satellite mea-surements restrict these improvements. A model of the diurnal variation in lake surface temperature could potentially increase the effective temporal resolution of satellite measurements of surface tem-perature, thereby enhancing the utility of these measurements in the above applications. Herein, a one-dimensional transient thermal model of a lake is used in combination with surface tempera-ture measurements from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard the Aqua and Terra satellites, along with ambient atmospheric conditions from local weather stations, and bulk temperature measurements to calculate the diurnal surface temperature variation for the five major lakes in the Savannah River Basin in South Carolina: Lakes Jocassee, Keowee, Hartwell, Russell, and Thurmond. The calculated solutions are used to obtain a functional form for the diurnal surface temperature variation of these lakes. Differences in diurnal variation in surface temperature between each of these lakes are identified and potential explanations for these differences are presented.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.