Lake George may soon become the world's smartest lake. The waterway in the Adirondack area of New York state will soon be equipped with 40 monitors to track the condition of the waters, including environmental degradation and the rise of invasive species in the body of water.
Monitors will record rainfall, wind, currents, salinity, and stream run off, in addition to nitrogen and chlorophyll concentrations within the lake. All of this data will be turned into a 3D model of the lake through the use of an IBM Blue Gene supercomputer. This computer will also have 30 years of data about the lake available to assist it in modeling.
Monitoring devices for the lake include self-propelled underwater robots, weather stations, Doppler units, stream gauges, and intelligent buoys. Some of these devices will be visible from the shore.
"We can turn the lake back from the edge of the abyss. We do not have a complete picture of Lake George scientifically, and we need it," Eric Siy, executive director of the Fund for Lake George, said.
It is believed that this model will help environmentalists protect the waterway from invasive species, runoff from road salt and other threats. The lake, nestled in the southeast section of Adirondack Park, has been facing several threats in the last few years. These include invasive species like the Eurasian milfoil and zebra mussel, along with road salt that leeches into the lake each winter and spring. By studying conditions in the lake, researchers hope to be able to more accurately predict when invasive species will become more common, in an effort to mitigate the damage they cause.
This three-year project is being commissioned by the Fund for Lake George, an environmental advocacy group, along with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and IBM in an effort to keep the area pristine.
"Because in some ways Lake George is small - it's 32 miles long - we have the ability to do a very complete and thorough instrumentation," Sandra Nierzwicki-Bauer, director of RPI's Darrin Fresh Water Institute, said.
The 3D model created by the monitoring devices and supercomputer will be able to model both the past and present conditions of the lake, along with making predictions about future conditions.
Similar instrumentation is used in several other water bodies, including the Great Lakes. However, none of the other programs are as intense or thorough as the Lake George project.
