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We investigated radiatively driven under-ice convection in Lake Onego (Russia) during 3 consecutive late winters. In ice-covered lakes, where the temperature of water is below the temperature of maximum density, radiatively driven heating in the upper water column induces unstable density distributions leading to gravitational convection. In this work, we quantified the key parameters to characterise the radiatively driven under-ice convection: (1) the effective buoyancy flux, B * (driver), and its vertical distribution; (2) the convective mixed-layer thickness, h CML (depth scale); and (3) the convective velocity, w * (kinematic scale). We compared analytical w * scaling estimates to in situ observations from high-resolution acoustic Doppler current profilers. The results show a robust correlation between w * and the direct observations, except during the onset and decay of the solar radiation. Our results highlight the importance of accurately defining the upper limit of h CML in highly turbid water and the need for spectrally resolving solar radiation measurements and their attenuation for accurate B * estimates. Uncertainties in the different parameters were also investigated. We finally examined the implications of under-ice convection for the growth rate of nonmotile phytoplankton and provide a simple heuristic model as a function of easily measurable parameters.

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Environmental sciences depend heavily on observational data. Successful studies of ecological processes in lakes require in-situ data that cover the relevant temporal scales from milliseconds to entire seasons. Temporal and spatial coverage requirements represent a non-trivial challenge in lake sciences, which have traditionally used sampling campaigns conducted from research vessels or anchored moorings. These come with various logistical tasks and impose constraints on data coverage. An open water platform can overcome many of these limitations by providing continuous access and a wide range of analytical capabilities in direct contact with the lake environment. A consortium of five partner institutions constructed a 10 Â 10 m, open-water, multipurpose platform on Lake Geneva (Switzerland/France) for a broad range of limnological research. The LéXPLORE platform, anchored since February 2019 at a position reaching 110 m depth off the lake's north-shore, provides workspace for a large number of instruments and up to 16 staff working in parallel on individual or integrated multidisciplinary projects. The safe, dry and protected floating laboratory offers direct access to the lake environment for high-sensitivity, highthroughput analyses including those which might advance sensor technology.The platform provides flexible workspace for both high-resolution measurements and investigations of larger-scale external forcing. It thus supports multidisciplinary empirical research in limnology, atmospheric sciences, and remote sensing. This article describes the platform and how it will advance aquatic sciences. The large number of projects that have already requested

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