Overcoming numerous challenges, a unique partnership created two C-band mobile Doppler weather radars capable of accurately measuring both clear-air circulations and damaging winds in heavy rain.
Starting with acquisition of two decommissioned 1974 C-band National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Surveillance Radars (WSR-74Cs) in early 1998, a coalition of scientists from the University of Oklahoma (OU), National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL), Texas A&M University (TAMU), and Texas Tech University (TTU) embarked on a project to build and deploy two mobile C-band Doppler weather radars for storm-scale research and to enhance graduate and undergraduate education in radar meteorology. This project culminated in the successful development and deployment of the first mobile C-band Doppler weather radar, dubbed SR-1, in 2001 (Fig. 1). To
Observations of the wake generated by a single utility-scale turbine and collected by the Texas Tech University Ka-band mobile research radars on 27 October 2011 are introduced. Remotely sensed turbine wake observations using lidar technology have proven effective; however, the presented radar capabilities provide a larger observational footprint and greater along-beam resolution than current scanning lidar systems. Plan-position indicator and range-height indicator scanning techniques are utilized to produce various wake analyses. Preliminary analyses confirm radial velocity and wind speed deficits immediately downwind of the turbine hub to be on the order of 50%. This introduction lays the groundwork for more in-depth analyses of wake structure and evolution using the Texas Tech University Ka-band radar systems, including wake meandering and wake-to-wake interaction in large wind park deployments.
The first known dual-Doppler (DD) measurements collected within a utility-scale wind farm are presented. Various complex flow features are discussed, including detailed analyses of turbine wakes, turbine-to-turbine interaction, high wind speed channels that exist between individual wakes and intermittent gust propagation. The data have been collected using innovative mobile Doppler radar technologies, which allows for a large observational footprint of~17 km 2 in the presented analyses while maintaining spatial resolution of 0.49°in the azimuthal dimension by 15 m in the along-beam range dimension. The presented DD syntheses provide three-dimensional fields of the horizontal wind speed and direction with a revisit time of approximately 1 min. DD wind fields are validated with operational turbine data and are successfully used to accurately project composite power output for several turbines. The employed radar technologies, deployment schemes, scanning strategies and subsequent analysis methodologies offer the potential to contribute to the validation and improvement of current wake modeling efforts that influence wind farm design and layout practices, enhanced resource assessment campaigns, and provide real-time wind maps to drive 'smart' wind farm operation.
Improvements in computer technology, particularly the explosive growth of Internet applications, have created unprecedented educational opportunities, but with concomitantly little experience on how educators can best take advantage of them. The Laboratory for the Exploration of Atmospheric Processes (LEAP) is a new 15-workstation computer laboratory operated by the Department of Meteorology at Texas A&M University. The setup and use of LEAP in a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses are described. Particular emphasis is placed on applications that use the World Wide Web or specialized meteorological software, with the aims of fostering greater discussion of computer-based teaching methods in meteorology and sharing and improvement of Web-based teaching materials.
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