DOW Radar Observations of Wind Farms

Abstract

The growth of the wind industry in recent years has motivated investigation into wind farm interference with the operation of the nationwide Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) network. Observations of a wind farm were taken with a Doppler on Wheels (DOW) during the DOW Radar Observations at Purdue Study (DROPS), a largely studentled field program that took place in the fall of 2009. The DOW sampled clear-air weather and precipitation at locations within 5 km of the Benton County, Indiana, wind farm to determine the wind turbines' effect on Doppler velocity and ref lectivity data. These data were analyzed and compared with data from the Indianapolis WSR-88D (KIND) and a local television station (WLFI) radar. In precipitation, the DOW data show velocity couplets that have the appearance of isolated tornadic vortices. Under clear-air sampling, significant multipath scattering is evident, but no velocity couplets would meet the DOW-equivalent tornado detection algorithm criteria. Broader impacts of these findings are discussed, and suggestions are made for additional studies that would explore how to mitigate these impacts.

Doppler Weather Radars and Wind Turbines

“…of the observed clutter can range from barely visible (< 0 dBZ) to near saturation levels (> 60 dBZ) (Agence National des Fréquences, 2005;Crum et al, 2008;Toth et al, 2011;Tristant, 2006a).…”

“…Such clutter tails can be visible for tens of kilometres behind wind turbines. No theoretical model has been put forward to explain this phenomenon but it has been suggested that the tails are caused by multiple scattering effects (scattering between multiple turbines and/or scattering between turbine and ground) (Crum et al, 2008;Isom et al, 2009;Toth et al, 2011). Clutter tails are not considered a problem for wind farms located further than 18 km from the weather radar (Crum & Ciardi, 2010;Vogt et al, 2009).…”

Snowflake Selfies: A Low-Cost, High-Impact Approach toward Student Engagement in Scientific Research (with Their Smartphones)

“…Examples of engaged scholarship include undergraduate student involvement in research and reinforcement of material and concepts learned in core classes during out-of-classroom activities, especially those related to relevant societal issues of interest to the students. Numerous examples of engaged scholarship have been incorporated into the meteorological teaching community, including instruments such as the National Science Foundation educational deployments of the Doppler on Wheels (Richardson et al 2008;Toth et al 2011;Bell et al 2015;Milrad and Herbster 2017;Clark et al 2019).…”

Mobile Radar as an Undergraduate Education and Research Tool: The ERAU C-BREESE Field Experience with the Doppler on Wheels

“…As examples of the diverse scientific objectives of DOW educational deployments, PAMREX (Richardson et al 2008) and HERO (Bell et al 2015) primarily focused on mobile radar observations of atmospheric phenomena in regions of complex terrain in Pennsylvania and Hawaii, respectively. Meanwhile, DROPS (Toth et al 2011) took DOW observations of wind farms in Indiana. Educational deployments most related to ERAU C-BREESE include F-DEWS; Texas A&M DOW (TAMU DOW), which studied baybreeze convection in Texas; and DREAMS (UCAR EOL 2016b), which studied sea-breeze processes and convection in Long Island, New York.…”