HR: 0800h
AN: B11A-0127    [Abstracts]
TI: Can Large Windfarms Affect Local Meteorology?
AU: * Baidya Roy, S
EM: sroy@princeton.edu
AF: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University, Box 90287 Hudson Hall, Durham, NC 27708 United States
AU: Walko, R L
EM: robert.walko@duke.edu
AF: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University, Box 90287 Hudson Hall, Durham, NC 27708 United States
AU: Pacala, s W
EM: pacala@princeton.edu
AF: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Eno Hall, Princeton, NJ 08540 United States
AB: The RAMS model was used to explore the possible impacts of a large windfarm in the Great Plains region on the local meteorology over synoptic timescales under typical summertime conditions. A wind turbine was approximated as a sink of energy and source of turbulence. The windfarm was created by assuming an array of such turbines. Results show that the windfarm significantly slows down the wind at the turbine hub-height level. Additionally, turbulence generated by rotors create eddies that can enhance vertical mixing of momentum, heat and scalars usually leading to a warming and drying of the surface air and reduced surface sensible heat flux. This effect is most intense in the early morning hours when the boundary layer is stably stratified and the hub-height level wind speed is the strongest due to the nocturnal low-level jet. The impact on evapotranspiration is small.
DE: 3379 Turbulence
DE: 3307 Boundary layer processes
DE: 1833 Hydroclimatology
DE: 1620 Climate dynamics (3309)
DE: 0315 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting