Pengfei Xue on Great Lakes’ Hydroclimate Projections

Satellite view of the Great Lakes by NOAA.
SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE

Urban Milwaukee and Wisconsin Public Radio mentioned a Michigan Tech study in stories about advice from a panel of scientists that Great Lakes communities prepare for swings in high and low water levels in the face of climate change.

The study, led by Pengfei Xue (CEGE/GLRC), projected Lake Superior to rise 7.5 inches and the Lake Michigan-Huron system to rise 17 inches by 2050 due to climate change. From the study:

Climate modeler Pengfei Xue, of Michigan Technological University, and his team for the first time combined a high-resolution regional climate model and a 3D hydrodynamic model, along with hydrologic models to hone projections for lake-level rise.

“What we have built is a system that gives a better representation of the complexity of hydrodynamics and lake-atmosphere interaction and contributes to a more advanced modeling framework necessary for improving the Great Lakes’ hydroclimate projections. This is particularly evident through the markedly improved simulation of lake evaporation.”

Pengfei Xue, associate director of the Great Lakes Research Center and associate professor in Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

Read “Great Lakes levels are likely to see continued rise in next three decades” at Phys.org, by the American Geophysical Union.

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