Deep-water renewal in Lake Baikal

The paper presents an attempt to describe water exchange in Lake Baikal proceeding from interpretation of tracer (freon-12) contents and temperature of water. Destruction of the metastable equilibrium of the surface water layer in the cold season at reverse stratification is suggested as a controlling mechanism of deep-water renewal. A system of one-dimensional equations of substance (for the tracer) and heat budget is proposed. The solution to an inverse problem for turbulence coefficients and water exchange flows shows a considerable role of turbulence in the upper layers of deep-water column. The depth-dependent distribution function of sinking surface water parcels is found.