Abstract
Some numerical experiments by the barotropic nonlinear two dimensional models are performed to study the water circulations in Lake Biwa, especially to study the large anticlockwise gyre in the north basin. The wind fields used in the experiments have no rotational component. This gyre is induced by the southerly wind and is approximately on the geostrophic balance. The vorticity of this gyre is contributed from the vertical stretching of the vortex tube by the variable bottom topography and the inertia term. But the latter term does not become effective if the bottom profile of the basin is flat. Therefore the horizontal circulation in the barotropic closed basin is the “topographic gyres”. The bottom stress has a little contribution to the vorticity balance of the gyre.
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Imasato, N., Kanari, S. & Kunishi, H. Study on the currents in Lake Biwa (I). Journal of the Oceanographical Society of Japan 31, 15–24 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02108215
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02108215