Satellite measurements of water surface temperature can benefit several environmental ap-plications such as predictions of lake evaporation, meteorological forecasts, and predictions of lake overturning events, among others. However, limitations on the temporal resolution of satellite mea-surements restrict these improvements. A model of the diurnal variation in lake surface temperature could potentially increase the effective temporal resolution of satellite measurements of surface tem-perature, thereby enhancing the utility of these measurements in the above applications. Herein, a one-dimensional transient thermal model of a lake is used in combination with surface tempera-ture measurements from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard the Aqua and Terra satellites, along with ambient atmospheric conditions from local weather stations, and bulk temperature measurements to calculate the diurnal surface temperature variation for the five major lakes in the Savannah River Basin in South Carolina: Lakes Jocassee, Keowee, Hartwell, Russell, and Thurmond. The calculated solutions are used to obtain a functional form for the diurnal surface temperature variation of these lakes. Differences in diurnal variation in surface temperature between each of these lakes are identified and potential explanations for these differences are presented
