A simple climatological model of the dynamics and energetics of the nocturnal circulation at Lake Victoria

The local atmospheric night‐time circulation at Lake Victoria (East Africa) is simulated by a simple model which is cylindrically symmetric. It consists of an upper layer (linearized, steady state, hydrostatic, incompressible, saturated over the lake) above a surface boundary layer (constant flux layer, log + lin profile). Analytical solutions are derived for the dynamical, energetical, and hydrological parameters. They mainly depend on the surface temperature difference between land and lake, which is the driving mechanism of the motion, and the choice of representative mesoscale transport coefficients Km, Kh. The results are compared with the climatological features of the nocturnal circulation.