The Impacts of Wind Farms on Cumulus Development in the Central Great Plains

Cumulus clouds have a net cooling effect on the surface radiative balance by reflecting more downwelling solar radiation than absorbing upwelling terrestrial radiation. As boundary layer cumuli form from buoyant, moist plumes ascending from the surface, their growth may be hindered by the turbulent deformation of the plume by wind farms. A natural laboratory to study the impact of wind farms on cumulus formation is Iowa and Nebraska as these two states vary vastly in their wind power offerings. This study uses Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) visible satellite imagery from the summers of 2009 to 2013 to investigate cumulus development upstream and downstream of wind farms in Iowa and Nebraska with the intent to show the impacts of wind farms on fair weather cumulus development at various stages of cloud development. Analysis of the mean cloudy state both upstream and downstream of wind turbines shows that a statistically significant change in the amount of cloudiness is not present.

Grantor dc:publisher

Creighton University

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Mahoney, Laren

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Wagner, Timothy J.

• Nebraska -- Climatology
• Nebraska -- Meteorology

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright is retained by the Author. A non-exclusive distribution right is granted to Creighton University and to ProQuest following the publishing model selected above.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/68744

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:cdr.creighton.edu:10504/68744