On this project we will use MATLAB to make calculations and conclusions based on real data collected by the NOAA (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the United States government) on the “Daily Lake Average Surface Water Temperature” of six lakes (Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan, Superior, and St. Clair) during the 2018 calendar year.
You can find the actual data file here that contain the average temperatures for each day of the year for each of the six lakes. Data were collected between January and December 2018 and are in degrees Celsius. https://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/ftp/glsea/avgtemps/2018/glsea-temps2018_1024.dat
Days are numbered 1 to 365, 1 being January 1st and December 31st being 365. The data must be extracted from the file and put into MATLAB, but not by hand.
This project was accomplished in a group of three and the questions that I had to solve were:
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Make a graph of the temperature of each daily average (x=day, y=temp). Make one graph per lake to show the yearly temperature trends. Label the axes clearly and add titles to all your graphs.
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Make a single graph of the temperatures (x=day, y=temp) that shows all 6 lines on one graph. Each lake will have a different colour and line type. Title your graph, label your axes, and have a legend.
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Assuming that you can swim comfortably in the lake if the temperature is above 20 degrees, calculate the number of days in the year you can swim for each of the 6 lakes. Make pie charts of the percentages of total days of the year that you can swim in the lakes. Make one pie chart per lake and put all 6 on the same figure. Indicate each lake clearly next to the pie chart in the figure.
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You know you can create equations to approximate experimental data. Can you deduce some fit between the days and the water temperatures? Can you create an equation that would approximate the results? If yes, what is the equation? Is it the same fit for all the lakes? If not can you provide the formulas (equations) for each of the 6 lakes? Try your best here using knowledge from class.