A plethora of atmospheric features imaged over the Great Lakes by SAR

The Lake-Induced Convection Experiment (Lake-ICE) occurred over the Great Lakes during the winter of 97-98. During this time a large number of interesting and unusual observational systems were available to study lake-induced convection. One satellite remote-sensing system was RADARSAT, the Canadian synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellite. It records the instantaneous spatial patterns of the fine-scale roughness on the surface of the planet. Those patterns over the water can at times be related to the instantaneous, spatial patterns of wind forcing of that water. In this paper we present a variety of case studies of the foot prints of likely atmospheric phenomena over the Great Lakes. These include: simultaneous atmospheric gravity waves and convection over Lake Superior; a Lake-Superior scale vortex; Lake-parallel convergence zones over all of the Great Lakes; double land breezes associated with Lake-scale atmospheric convection over Lake Michigan; anomalous O(15km) scale linear features over Lake Michigan; and the mesoscale variations in wind patterns over the southern part of Lake Michigan induced by mesoscale variations in land usage, including cities.