Modeling the wind-fields of accidental releases with an operational regional forecast model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Albritton, J.R.; Lee, R.L.; Sugiyama, G.

1995-01-01

The Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability (ARAC) is an operational emergency preparedness and response organization supported primarily by the Departments of Energy and Defense. ARAC can provide real-time assessments of atmospheric releases of radioactive materials at any location in the world. ARAC uses robust three-dimensional atmospheric transport and dispersion models, extensive geophysical and dose-factor databases, meteorological data-acquisition systems, and an experienced staff. Although it was originally conceived and developed as an emergency response and assessment service for nuclear accidents, the ARAC system has been adapted to also simulate non-radiological hazardous releases. For example, in 1991 ARAC responded to three major events: the oil fires in Kuwait, the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines, and the herbicide spill into the upper Sacramento River in California. ARAC's operational simulation system, includes two three-dimensional finite-difference models: a diagnostic wind-field scheme, and a Lagrangian particle-in-cell transport and dispersion scheme. The meteorological component of ARAC's real-time response system employs models using real-time data from all available stations near the accident site to generate a wind-field for input to the transport and dispersion model. Here we report on simulation studies of past and potential release sites to show that even in the absence of local meteorological observational data, readily available gridded analysis and forecast data and a prognostic model, the Navy Operational Regional Atmospheric Prediction System, applied at an appropriate grid resolution can successfully simulate complex local flows

Profiling the regional wind power fluctuation in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu Dayang; Liang Jun; Han Xueshan; Zhao Jianguo

2011-01-01

As China starts to build 6 10-GW wind zones in 5 provinces by 2020, accommodating the wind electricity generated from these large wind zones will be a great challenge for the regional grids. Inadequate wind observing data hinders profiling the wind power fluctuations at the regional grid level. This paper proposed a method to assess the seasonal and diurnal wind power patterns based on the wind speed data from the NASA GEOS-5 DAS system, which provides data to the study of climate processes including the long-term estimates of meteorological quantities. The wind power fluctuations for the 6 largest wind zones in China are presented with both the capacity factor and the megawatt wind power output. The measured hourly wind output in a regional grid is compared to the calculating result to test the analyzing model. To investigate the offsetting effect of dispersed wind farms over large regions, the regional correlations of hourly wind power fluctuations are calculated. The result illustrates the different offsetting effects of minute and hourly fluctuations.

Wind-induced transmission tower foundation loads. A field study-design code comparison

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Savory, E. [Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, Ont. (Canada); Parke, G.A.R.; Disney, P.; Toy, N. [School of Engineering, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH (United Kingdom)

2008-06-15

This paper presents a comparison between the wind-induced foundation loads measured on a type L6 transmission line tower during a field study in the UK and those computed using the UK Code of Practice for lattice tower and transmission line design (BS8100). In this work, the Code provisions have been generalised to give the wind-induced strain in each of the tower legs immediately above the foundation as a function of wind direction and wind speed at the top of the tower. The complete data set from the field monitoring has been decomposed to provide a similar formulation for comparison purposes. The analysis shows excellent agreement between the Code calculations and the measured results, within the overall accuracy of the field data. This indicates that, at least for the tower type examined here, the existing design Code provides a reliable transformation of the local wind speed at the top of the tower into tension and compression loads on the foundations. (author)

Low-frequency magnetic field fluctuations in Venus' solar wind interaction region: Venus Express observations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Guicking

2010-04-01

Full Text Available We investigate wave properties of low-frequency magnetic field fluctuations in Venus' solar wind interaction region based on the measurements made on board the Venus Express spacecraft. The orbit geometry is very suitable to investigate the fluctuations in Venus' low-altitude magnetosheath and mid-magnetotail and provides an opportunity for a comparative study of low-frequency waves at Venus and Mars. The spatial distributions of the wave properties, in particular in the dayside and nightside magnetosheath as well as in the tail and mantle region, are similar to observations at Mars. As both planets do not have a global magnetic field, the interaction process of the solar wind with both planets is similar and leads to similar instabilities and wave structures. We focus on the spatial distribution of the wave intensity of the fluctuating magnetic field and detect an enhancement of the intensity in the dayside magnetosheath and a strong decrease towards the terminator. For a detailed investigation of the intensity distribution we adopt an analytical streamline model to describe the plasma flow around Venus. This allows displaying the evolution of the intensity along different streamlines. It is assumed that the waves are generated in the vicinity of the bow shock and are convected downstream with the turbulent magnetosheath flow. However, neither the different Mach numbers upstream and downstream of the bow shock, nor the variation of the cross sectional area and the flow velocity along the streamlines play probably an important role in order to explain the observed concentration of wave intensity in the dayside magnetosheath and the decay towards the nightside magnetosheath. But, the concept of freely evolving or decaying turbulence is in good qualitative agreement with the observations, as we observe a power law decay of the intensity along the streamlines. The observations support the assumption of wave convection through the magnetosheath, but

Particle-In-Cell Simulations of the Solar Wind Interaction with Lunar Crustal Magnetic Anomalies: Magnetic Cusp Regions

Science.gov (United States)

Poppe, A. R.; Halekas, J. S.; Delory, G. T.; Farrell, W. M.

2012-01-01

As the solar wind is incident upon the lunar surface, it will occasionally encounter lunar crustal remanent magnetic fields. These magnetic fields are small-scale, highly non-dipolar, have strengths up to hundreds of nanotesla, and typically interact with the solar wind in a kinetic fashion. Simulations, theoretical analyses, and spacecraft observations have shown that crustal fields can reflect solar wind protons via a combination of magnetic and electrostatic reflection; however, analyses of surface properties have suggested that protons may still access the lunar surface in the cusp regions of crustal magnetic fields. In this first report from a planned series of studies, we use a 1 1/2-dimensional, electrostatic particle-in-cell code to model the self-consistent interaction between the solar wind, the cusp regions of lunar crustal remanent magnetic fields, and the lunar surface. We describe the self-consistent electrostatic environment within crustal cusp regions and discuss the implications of this work for the role that crustal fields may play regulating space weathering of the lunar surface via proton bombardment.

Solar wind parameters responsible for the plasma injection into the magnetospheric ring current region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bobrov, M.S.

1977-01-01

Solar wind effect on the magnetospheric ring-current region has been considered. The correlations with solar wind parameters of the magnitude qsub(o) proportional to the total energy of particles being injected into the magnetospheric ring-current region per one hour are studied statistically and by comparison of time variations. The data on 8 sporadic geomagnetic storms of various intensity, from moderate to very severe one, are used. It is found that qsub(o) correlates not only with the magnitude and the direction of the solar-wind magnetic field component normal to the ecliptic plane, Bsub(z), but also with the variability, sigmasub(B), of the total magnetic-field strength vector. The solar-wind flux velocity ν influences the average storm intensity but the time variations of ν during any individual storm do not correlate with those of qsub(o)

Four Methods for LIDAR Retrieval of Microscale Wind Fields

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Naini

2012-08-01

Full Text Available This paper evaluates four wind retrieval methods for micro-scale meteorology applications with volume and time resolution in the order of 30m³ and 5 s. Wind field vectors are estimated using sequential time-lapse volume images of aerosol density fluctuations. Suitably designed mono-static scanning backscatter LIDAR systems, which are sensitive to atmospheric density aerosol fluctuations, are expected to be ideal for this purpose. An important application is wind farm siting and evaluation. In this case, it is necessary to look at the complicated region between the earth’s surface and the boundary layer, where wind can be turbulent and fractal scaling from millimeter to kilometer. The methods are demonstrated using first a simple randomized moving hard target, and then with a physics based stochastic space-time dynamic turbulence model. In the latter case the actual vector wind field is known, allowing complete space-time error analysis. Two of the methods, the semblance method and the spatio-temporal method, are found to be most suitable for wind field estimation.

Identification of wind fields for wave modeling near Qatar

Science.gov (United States)

Nayak, Sashikant; Balan Sobhana, Sandeepan; Panchang, Vijay

2016-04-01

Due to the development of coastal and offshore infrastructure in and around the Arabian Gulf, a large semi-enclosed sea, knowledge of met-ocean factors like prevailing wind systems, wind generated waves, and currents etc. are of great importance. Primarily it is important to identify the wind fields that are used as forcing functions for wave and circulation models for hindcasting and forecasting purposes. The present study investigates the effects of using two sources of wind-fields on the modeling of wind-waves in the Arabian Gulf, in particular near the coastal regions of Qatar. Two wind sources are considered here, those obtained from ECMWF and those generated by us using the WRF model. The wave model SWAN was first forced with the 6 hourly ERA Interim daily winds (from ECMWF) having spatial resolution of 0.125°. For the second option, wind fields were generated by us using the mesoscale wind model (WRF) with a high spatial resolution (0.1°) at every 30 minute intervals. The simulations were carried out for a period of two months (7th October-7th December, 2015) during which measurements were available from two moored buoys (deployed and operated by the Qatar Meteorological Department), one in the north of Qatar ("Qatar North", in water depth of 58.7 m) and other in the south ("Shiraouh Island", in water depth of 16.64 m). This period included a high-sea event on 11-12th of October, recorded by the two buoys where the significant wave heights (Hs) reached as high as 2.9 m (i.e. max wave height H ~ 5.22 m) and 1.9 (max wave height H ~ 3.4 m) respectively. Model results were compared with the data for this period. The scatter index (SI) of the Hs simulated using the WRF wind fields and the observed Hs was found to be about 30% and 32% for the two buoys (total period). The observed Hs were generally reproduced but there was consistent underestimation. (Maximum 27% for the high-sea event). For the Hs obtained with ERA interim wind fields, the underestimation was

Impacts of climate change on wind energy resources in France: a regionalization study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Najac, J.

2008-11-01

In this work, we study the impact of climate change on surface winds in France and draw conclusions concerning wind energy resources. Because of their coarse spatial resolution, climate models cannot properly reproduce the spatial variability of surface winds. Thus, 2 down-scaling methods are developed in order to regionalize an ensemble of climate scenarios: a statistical method based on weather typing and a statistic-dynamical method that resorts to high resolution mesoscale modelling. By 2050, significant but relatively small changes are depicted with, in particular, a decrease of the wind speed in the southern and an increase in the northern regions of France. The use of other down-scaling methods enables us to study several uncertainty sources: it appears that most of the uncertainty is due to the climate models. (author)

Wide Area Wind Field Monitoring Status & Results

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Alan Marchant; Jed Simmons

2011-09-30

Volume-scanning elastic has been investigated as a means to derive 3D dynamic wind fields for characterization and monitoring of wind energy sites. An eye-safe volume-scanning lidar system was adapted for volume imaging of aerosol concentrations out to a range of 300m. Reformatting of the lidar data as dynamic volume images was successfully demonstrated. A practical method for deriving 3D wind fields from dynamic volume imagery was identified and demonstrated. However, the natural phenomenology was found to provide insufficient aerosol features for reliable wind sensing. The results of this study may be applicable to wind field measurement using injected aerosol tracers.

The environment of the wind-wind collision region of η Carinae

Science.gov (United States)

Panagiotou, C.; Walter, R.

2018-02-01

Context. η Carinae is a colliding wind binary hosting two of the most massive stars and featuring the strongest wind collision mechanical luminosity. The wind collision region of this system is detected in X-rays and γ-rays and offers a unique laboratory for the study of particle acceleration and wind magneto-hydrodynamics. Aim. Our main goal is to use X-ray observations of η Carinae around periastron to constrain the wind collision zone geometry and understand the reasons for its variability. Methods: We analysed 10 Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) observations, which were obtained around the 2014 periastron. The NuSTAR array monitored the source from 3 to 30 keV, which allowed us to grasp the continuum and absorption parameters with very good accuracy. We were able to identify several physical components and probe their variability. Results: The X-ray flux varied in a similar way as observed during previous periastrons and largely as expected if generated in the wind collision region. The flux detected within 10 days of periastron is lower than expected, suggesting a partial disruption of the central region of the wind collision zone. The Fe Kα line is likely broadened by the electrons heated along the complex shock fronts. The variability of its equivalent width indicates that the fluorescence region has a complex geometry and that the source obscuration varies quickly with the line of sight.

Project 'WINDBANK mittleres Aaretal' - Analysis, Diagnosis and Forecast of Wind Fields around the Nuclear Power Plant Goesgen

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Graber, W. K.; Tinguely, M.

2002-07-01

An emergency decision support system for accidental releases of radioactivity into the atmosphere providing regional wind field information is presented. This system is based on intensive meteorological field campaigns each lasting 3-4 months in the regions around the Swiss nuclear power plants. The wind data from temporary and permanent stations are analysed to evaluate the typical wind field patterns occurring in these regions. A cluster analysis for these data-sets lead to 12 different wind field classes with a high separation quality. In the present report, it is demonstrated that an on-line acquisition of meteorological data from existing permanent stations is enough to diagnose the recent wind field class in a region with a radius of 25 km around the nuclear power station of Goesgen with a probability of 95% to hit the correct class. Furthermore, a method is presented to use a high resolution weather prediction model to forecast the future wind field classes. An average probability of 76% to hit the correct class for a forecast time of 24 hours is evaluated. Finally, a method for parameterization of turbulence providing input for dispersion models from standard meteorological online data is presented. (author)

Observation of wind field over heterogeneous terrain by the French-German airborne Doppler lidar WIND

Science.gov (United States)

Dabas, A.; Werner, C.; Delville, P.; Reitebuch, O.; Drobinski, P.; Cousin, F.

2003-04-01

In summer 2001, the French-German airborne Doppler lidar WIND participated to field campaign ESCOMPTE. ESCOMPTE was carried out in the region of Marseille along the Mediterranean coast of France. It was dedicated to the observation of heavy pollution events in this industrialized, densely populated region of nearly 4 million inhabitants. The aim was to gather a data base as comprehensive as possible on several pollution events and use them to check the ability of several regional forecast models to predict such events. The specific mission devoted to WIND was the characterization at mesoscale of the wind field and the topography of the planetary boundary layer. Both are complex around Marseille due the heterogeneity of the surface with a transition sea/land to the south, the fore-Alps to the North, the Rhône valley to the North-West etc... Seven, 3-hr flights were carried out and gave excellent results. In 2002, first comparisons were made with mesoscale models. They will be shown during the presentation. They are good examples of the usefulness of airborne Doppler lidar for validating and improving atmospheric model simulations.

Wind energy resource assessment in Madrid region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Migoya, Emilio; Crespo, Antonio; Jimenez, Angel; Garcia, Javier; Manuel, Fernando [Laboratorio de Mecanica de Fluidos, Departamento de Ingenieria Energetica y Fluidomecanica, Escuela Tecnica Superior Ingenieros Industriales (ETSII), Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM), C/Jose Gutierrez Abascal, 2-28006, Madrid (Spain)

2007-07-15

The Comunidad Autonoma de Madrid (Autonomous Community of Madrid, in the following Madrid Region), is a region located at the geographical centre of the Iberian Peninsula. Its area is 8.028 km{sup 2}, and its population about five million people. The Department of Economy and Technological Innovation of the Madrid Region, together with some organizations dealing on energy saving and other research institutions have elaborated an Energy Plan for the 2004-12 period. As a part of this work, the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory of the Superior Technical School of Industrial Engineers of the Polytechnic University of Madrid has carried out the assessment of the wind energy resources [Crespo A, Migoya E, Gomez Elvira R. La energia eolica en Madrid. Potencialidad y prospectiva. Plan energetico de la Comunidad de Madrid, 2004-2012. Madrid: Comunidad Autonoma de Madrid; 2004]; using for this task the WAsP program (Wind Atlas Analysis and Application Program), and the own codes, UPMORO (code to study orography effects) and UPMPARK (code to study wake effects in wind parks). Different kinds of data have been collected about climate, topography, roughness of the land, environmentally protected areas, town and village distribution, population density, main facilities and electric power supply. The Spanish National Meteorological Institute has nine wind measurement stations in the region, but only four of them have good and reliable temporary wind data, with time measurement periods that are long enough to provide representative correlations among stations. The Observed Wind Climates of the valid meteorological stations have been made. The Wind Atlas and the resource grid have been calculated, especially in the high wind resource areas, selecting appropriate measurements stations and using criteria based on proximity, similarity and ruggedness index. Some areas cannot be used as a wind energy resource mainly because they have environmental regulation or, in some cases, are very close

Improvement of wind field hindcasts for tropical cyclones

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yi Pan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a study on the improvement of wind field hindcasts for two typical tropical cyclones, i.e., Fanapi and Meranti, which occurred in 2010. The performance of the three existing models for the hindcasting of cyclone wind fields is first examined, and then two modification methods are proposed to improve the hindcasted results. The first one is the superposition method, which superposes the wind field calculated from the parametric cyclone model on that obtained from the Cross-Calibrated Multi-Platform (CCMP reanalysis data. The radius used for the superposition is based on an analysis of the minimum difference between the two wind fields. The other one is the direct modification method, which directly modifies the CCMP reanalysis data according to the ratio of the measured maximum wind speed to the reanalyzed value as well as the distance from the cyclone center. Using these two methods, the problem of underestimation of strong winds in reanalysis data can be overcome. Both methods show considerable improvements in the hindcasting of tropical cyclone wind fields, compared with the cyclone wind model and the reanalysis data.

Improvement of wind field hindcasts for tropical cyclones

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yi Pan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a study on the improvement of wind field hindcasts for two typical tropical cyclones, i.e., Fanapi and Meranti, which occurred in 2010. The performance of the three existing models for the hindcasting of cyclone wind fields is first examined, and then two modification methods are proposed to improve the hindcasted results. The first one is the superposition method, which superposes the wind field calculated from the parametric cyclone model on that obtained from the cross-calibrated multi-platform (CCMP reanalysis data. The radius used for the superposition is based on an analysis of the minimum difference between the two wind fields. The other one is the direct modification method, which directly modifies the CCMP reanalysis data according to the ratio of the measured maximum wind speed to the reanalyzed value as well as the distance from the cyclone center. Using these two methods, the problem of underestimation of strong winds in reanalysis data can be overcome. Both methods show considerable improvements in the hindcasting of tropical cyclone wind fields, compared with the cyclone wind model and the reanalysis data.

The wind forecasting improvement project. Description and results from the Southern study region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Freedman, Jeffrey [AWS Truepower LLC, Albany, NY (United States); Benjamin, Stan; Wilczak, James [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Washington, DC and Boulder, CO (United States)] [and others

2012-07-01

The Wind Forecasting Improvement Project (WFIP) is a multi-year U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)/National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sponsored study whose main purpose is to demonstrate the scientific and economic benefits of additional atmospheric observations and model enhancements on wind energy production forecasts. WFIP covers two geographical regions of the U.S.: (1) the upper Great Plains, or Northern Study Area, and (2) most of Texas-the Southern Study Area. The Southern campaign is being led by AWS Truepower LLC, and includes a team of private, government, and academic partners with collective experience and expertise in all facets required to ensure a successful completion of the project. In addition presenting a summary of the state-of-the-art forecasting techniques used and phenomena-based analysis mentioned above, a brief synopsis of how ''lessons learned'' from the WFIP Southern Study Area can be articulated and applied to other wind resource regions will be described. (orig.)

Calibration and validation of the advanced E-Region Wind Interferometer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. K. Kristoffersen

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The advanced E-Region Wind Interferometer (ERWIN II combines the imaging capabilities of a CCD detector with the wide field associated with field-widened Michelson interferometry. This instrument is capable of simultaneous multi-directional wind observations for three different airglow emissions (oxygen green line (O(1S at a height of ~97 km, the PQ(7 and P(7 emission lines in the O2(0–1 atmospheric band at ~93 km and P1(3 emission line in the (6, 2 hydroxyl Meinel band at ~87 km on a three minute cadence. In each direction, for 45 s measurements for typical airglow volume emission rates, the instrument is capable of line-of-sight wind precisions of ~1 m s−1 for hydroxyl and O(1S and ~4 m s−1 for O2. This precision is achieved using a new data analysis algorithm which takes advantage of the imaging capabilities of the CCD detector along with knowledge of the instrument phase variation as a function of pixel location across the detector. This instrument is currently located in Eureka, Nunavut as part of the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL (80°N, 86° W. The details of the physical configuration, the data analysis algorithm, the measurement calibration and validation of the observations from December 2008 and January 2009 are described. Field measurements which demonstrate the capabilities of this instrument are presented. To our knowledge, the wind determinations with this instrument are the most accurate and have the highest observational cadence for airglow wind observations of this region of the atmosphere and match the capabilities of other wind-measuring techniques.

Field and numerical study of wind and surface waves at short fetches

Science.gov (United States)

Baydakov, Georgy; Kuznetsova, Alexandra; Sergeev, Daniil; Papko, Vladislav; Kandaurov, Alexander; Vdovin, Maxim; Troitskaya, Yuliya

2016-04-01

Measurements were carried out in 2012-2015 from May to October in the waters of Gorky Reservoir belonging to the Volga Cascade. The methods of the experiment focus on the study of airflow in the close proximity to the water surface. The sensors were positioned at the oceanographic Froude buoy including five two-component ultrasonic sensors WindSonic by Gill Instruments at different levels (0.1, 0.85, 1.3, 2.27, 5.26 meters above the mean water surface level), one water and three air temperature sensors, and three-channel wire wave gauge. One of wind sensors (0.1 m) was located on the float tracking the waveform for measuring the wind speed in the close proximity to the water surface. Basic parameters of the atmospheric boundary layer (the friction velocity u∗, the wind speed U10 and the drag coefficient CD) were calculated from the measured profiles of wind speed. Parameters were obtained in the range of wind speeds of 1-12 m/s. For wind speeds stronger than 4 m/s CD values were lower than those obtained before (see eg. [1,2]) and those predicted by the bulk parameterization. However, for weak winds (less than 3 m/s) CD values considerably higher than expected ones. The new parameterization of surface drag coefficient was proposed on the basis of the obtained data. The suggested parameterization of drag coefficient CD(U10) was implemented within wind input source terms in WAVEWATCH III [3]. The results of the numerical experiments were compared with the results obtained in the field experiments on the Gorky Reservoir. The use of the new drag coefficient improves the agreement in significant wave heights HS [4]. At the same time, the predicted mean wave periods are overestimated using both built-in source terms and adjusted source terms. We associate it with the necessity of the adjusting of the DIA nonlinearity model in WAVEWATCH III to the conditions of the middle-sized reservoir. Test experiments on the adjusting were carried out. The work was supported by the

Ocean Wave Simulation Based on Wind Field.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhongyi Li

Full Text Available Ocean wave simulation has a wide range of applications in movies, video games and training systems. Wind force is the main energy resource for generating ocean waves, which are the result of the interaction between wind and the ocean surface. While numerous methods to handle simulating oceans and other fluid phenomena have undergone rapid development during the past years in the field of computer graphic, few of them consider to construct ocean surface height field from the perspective of wind force driving ocean waves. We introduce wind force to the construction of the ocean surface height field through applying wind field data and wind-driven wave particles. Continual and realistic ocean waves result from the overlap of wind-driven wave particles, and a strategy was proposed to control these discrete wave particles and simulate an endless ocean surface. The results showed that the new method is capable of obtaining a realistic ocean scene under the influence of wind fields at real time rates.

Diagnostics of the solar wind transition region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lotova, N.A.; Nagelis, Ya.V.; Rudnitskij, G.M.; Smirnova, T.V.; AN Latvijskoj SSR, Riga. Radioastrofizicheskaya Observatoriya; Moskovskij Gosudarstvennyj Univ.; AN SSSR, Moscow. Fizicheskij Inst.)

1988-01-01

Possibilities are discussed of a more complete study of hardly observable regions of the interplanetary medium, in the zone of the solar wind formation, where transition from subsonic to supersonic flow occurs at R sun . It is shown that an investigation of fine structure of the extended transonic region of the solar wind and of the sequence of changes in the parameters of the interplanetary plasma in the region of the solar wind formation with the changing distance from the Sun can be effectuated by using jointly different modifications of the occupation method. Combination of two or more modifications of this method supposes using compact radio sources of different classes and observations in two different wavelength ranges, namely at short centimeter and at meter waves

Lidar-based reconstruction of wind fields and application for wind turbine control

OpenAIRE

Kapp, Stefan

2017-01-01

In this thesis horizontal, upwind scanning lidar systems of the focused continuous-wave type are regarded for wind turbines. The theory of wind field reconstruction is extended to a five parameter model describing the inflow in non-uniform conditions more accurately. Sensor requirements are derived. A new approach to spherically scan the inflow area is studied experimentally. Expected inaccuracies of the averaged wind direction signal in a wind farm environment are quantified and spatial inho...

Cooperative field test program for wind systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bollmeier, W.S. II; Dodge, D.M.

1992-03-01

The objectives of the Federal Wind Energy Program, managed by the US Department of Energy (DOE), are (1) to assist industry and utilities in achieving a multi-regional US market penetration of wind systems, and (2) to establish the United States as the world leader in the development of advanced wind turbine technology. In 1984, the program conducted a series of planning workshops with representatives from the wind energy industry to obtain input on the Five-Year Research Plan then being prepared by DOE. One specific suggestion that came out of these meetings was that the federal program should conduct cooperative research tests with industry to enhance the technology transfer process. It was also felt that the active involvement of industry in DOE-funded research would improve the state of the art of wind turbine technology. DOE established the Cooperative Field Test Program (CFTP) in response to that suggestion. This program was one of the first in DOE to feature joint industry-government research test teams working toward common objectives.

Coordinated voltage control for multiple wind plants in Eastern Wyoming. Analysis, field experience and validation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Miller, Nicholas; MacDowell, Jason; Chmiel, Gary; Konopinski, Ryan; Gautam, Durga [GE Energy, Schenectady, NY (United States); Laughter, Grant; Hagen, Dave [PacifiCorp., Salt Lake City, UT (United States)

2012-07-01

At high levels of wind power penetration, multiple wind plants may be the predominant generation resource over large geographic areas. Thus, not only do wind plants need to provide a high level of functionality, they must coordinate properly with each other. This paper describes the analysis and field testing of wind plant voltage controllers designed to improve system voltage performance through passive coordination. The described wind power plant controls can coordinate the real and reactive power response of multiple wind turbines and thereby make the plant function as a single ''grid friendly'' power generation source. For this application, involving seven large wind plants with predominantly GE wind turbines in Eastern Wyoming, the voltage portion of the controllers were configured and tuned to allow the collective reactive power response of multiple wind plants in the region to work well together. This paper presents the results of the initial configuration and tuning study, and the results of the subsequent field tuning and testing of the modified controls. The paper also presents some comparisons of the measured field performance with the stability simulation models, which show that the available wind plant models provide accurate, high fidelity results for actual operating conditions of commercial wind power plants. (orig.)

Weaving the history of the solar wind with magnetic field lines

Science.gov (United States)

Alvarado Gomez, Julian

2017-08-01

Despite its fundamental role for the evolution of the solar system, our observational knowledge of the wind properties of the young Sun comes from a single stellar observation. This unexpected fact for a field such as astrophysics arises from the difficulty of detecting Sun-like stellar winds. Their detection relies on the appearance of an astrospheric signature (from the stellar wind-ISM interaction region), visible only with the aid of high-resolution HST Lyman-alpha spectra. However, observations and modelling of the present day Sun have revealed that magnetic fields constitute the main driver of the solar wind, providing guidance on how such winds would look like back in time. In this context we propose observations of four young Sun-like stars in order to detect their astrospheres and characterise their stellar winds. For all these objects we have recovered surface magnetic field maps using the technique of Zeeman Doppler Imaging, and developed detailed wind models based on these observed field distributions. Even a single detection would represent a major step forward for our understanding of the history of the solar wind, and the outflows in more active stars. Mass loss rate estimates from HST will be confronted with predictions from realistic models of the corona/stellar wind. In one of our objects the comparison would allow us to quantify the wind variability induced by the magnetic cycle of a star, other than the Sun, for the first time. Three of our targets are planet hosts, thus the HST spectra would also provide key information on the high-energy environment of these systems, guaranteeing their legacy value for the growing field of exoplanet characterisation.

X-band COSMO-SkyMed wind field retrieval, with application to coastal circulation modeling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Montuori

2013-02-01

Full Text Available In this paper, X-band COSMO-SkyMed^© synthetic aperture radar (SAR wind field retrieval is investigated, and the obtained data are used to force a coastal ocean circulation model. The SAR data set consists of 60 X-band Level 1B Multi-Look Ground Detected ScanSAR Huge Region COSMO-SkyMed^© SAR data, gathered in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea during the summer and winter seasons of 2010. The SAR-based wind vector field estimation is accomplished by resolving both the SAR-based wind speed and wind direction retrieval problems independently. The sea surface wind speed is retrieved by means of a SAR wind speed algorithm based on the azimuth cut-off procedure, while the sea surface wind direction is provided by means of a SAR wind direction algorithm based on the discrete wavelet transform multi-resolution analysis. The obtained wind fields are compared with ground truth data provided by both ASCAT scatterometer and ECMWF model wind fields. SAR-derived wind vector fields and ECMWF model wind data are used to construct a blended wind product regularly sampled in both space and time, which is then used to force a coastal circulation model of a southern Tyrrhenian coastal area to simulate wind-driven circulation processes. The modeling results show that X-band COSMO-SkyMed^© SAR data can be valuable in providing effective wind fields for coastal circulation modeling.

Ripple Field AC Losses in 10-MW Wind Turbine Generators With a MgB2 Superconducting Field Winding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Dong; Polinder, Henk; Magnusson, Niklas

2016-01-01

Superconducting (SC) synchronous generators are proposed as a promising candidate for 10-20-MW direct-drive wind turbines because they can have low weights and small sizes. A common way of designing an SC machine is to use SC wires with high current-carrying capability in the dc field winding...... and the ac armature winding is made with copper conductors. In such generators, the dc field winding is exposed to ac magnetic field ripples due to space harmonics from the armature. In generator design phases, the ac loss caused by these ripple fields needs to be evaluated to avoid local overheating...... and an excessive cooling budget. To determine the applicability of different design solutions in terms of ac losses, this paper estimates the ac loss level of 10-MW wind generator designs employing a MgB2 SC field winding. The effects on ac losses are compared between nonmagnetic and ferromagnetic teeth...

Nearshore regional behavior of lightning interaction with wind turbines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gilbert A. Malinga

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The severity of lightning strikes on offshore wind turbines built along coastal and nearshore regions can pose safety concerns that are often overlooked. In this research study the behavior of electrical discharges for wind turbines that might be located in the nearshore regions along the East Coast of China and Sea of Japan were characterized using a physics-based model that accounted for a total of eleven different geometrical and lightning parameters. Utilizing the electrical potential field predicted using this model it was then possible to estimate the frequency of lightning strikes and the distribution of electrical loads utilizing established semi-empirical relationships and available data. The total number of annual lightning strikes on an offshore wind turbine was found to vary with hub elevation, extent of cloud cover, season and geographical location. The annual lightning strike rate on a wind turbine along the nearshore region on the Sea of Japan during the winter season was shown to be moderately larger compared to the lightning strike frequency on a turbine structure on the East Coast of China. Short duration electrical discharges, represented using marginal probability functions, were found to vary with season and geographical location, exhibiting trends consistent with the distribution of the electrical peak current. It was demonstrated that electrical discharges of moderately long duration typically occur in the winter months on the East Coast of China and the summer season along the Sea of Japan. In contrast, severe electrical discharges are typical of summer thunderstorms on the East Coast of China and winter frontal storm systems along the West Coast of Japan. The electrical charge and specific energy dissipated during lightning discharges on an offshore wind turbine was found to vary stochastically, with severe electrical discharges corresponding to large electrical currents of long duration.

Wind Turbines Adaptation to the Variability of the Wind Field

Science.gov (United States)

Ulianov, Yuriy; Martynenko, Gennadii; Misaylov, Vitaliy; Soliannikova, Iuliia

2010-05-01

WIND TURBINES ADAPTATION TO THE VARIABILITY OF THE WIND FIELD The subject of our scientific research is wind power turbines (WPT) with the horizontal axis which were now common in the world. Efficient wind turbines work is largely determined by non-stationarity of the wind field, expressed in its gustiness, the presence of vertical and horizontal shifts of wind speed and direction. At critical values of the wind parameters WPT has aerodynamic and mechanical overload, leading to breakdowns, premature wear and reduce the life of the wind turbine. To prevent accidents at the peak values of wind speed it is used the regulatory system of windwheels. WPT control systems provide a process orientation of the wind turbine rotor axis in the line of the mean wind. Wind turbines are also equipped with braking device used to protect against breakdowns when a significant increase in the wind. In general, all these methods of regulation are not always effective. Thus, in practice there may be situations when the wind speed is many times greater than the stated limit. For example, if there are microbursts in the atmospheric boundary layer, low-level wind shears caused by its gust front, storms, etc. It is required for a wind power turbine adaptation to intensive short-term wind impulses and considerable vertical wind shifts that the data about them shall be obtained ahead of time. To do this it is necessary to have the information on the real structure of the wind field in the area of the blade sweep for the minimum range against the wind that is determined by the mean speed and the system action time. The implementation of acoustic and laser traditional wind sounding systems is limited by ambient acoustic noise, by heavy rain, snowfall and by fog. There are free of these disadvantages the inclined radioacoustic sounding (IRASS) technique which works for a system of remote detection and control of wind gusts. IRASS technique is realized as low-potential Doppler pulse radar

Performance of the CORDEX regional climate models in simulating offshore wind and wind potential

Science.gov (United States)

Kulkarni, Sumeet; Deo, M. C.; Ghosh, Subimal

2018-03-01

This study is oriented towards quantification of the skill addition by regional climate models (RCMs) in the parent general circulation models (GCMs) while simulating wind speed and wind potential with particular reference to the Indian offshore region. To arrive at a suitable reference dataset, the performance of wind outputs from three different reanalysis datasets is evaluated. The comparison across the RCMs and their corresponding parent GCMs is done on the basis of annual/seasonal wind statistics, intermodel bias, wind climatology, and classes of wind potential. It was observed that while the RCMs could simulate spatial variability of winds, well for certain subregions, they generally failed to replicate the overall spatial pattern, especially in monsoon and winter. Various causes of biases in RCMs were determined by assessing corresponding maps of wind vectors, surface temperature, and sea-level pressure. The results highlight the necessity to carefully assess the RCM-yielded winds before using them for sensitive applications such as coastal vulnerability and hazard assessment. A supplementary outcome of this study is in form of wind potential atlas, based on spatial distribution of wind classes. This could be beneficial in suitably identifying viable subregions for developing offshore wind farms by intercomparing both the RCM and GCM outcomes. It is encouraging that most of the RCMs and GCMs indicate that around 70% of the Indian offshore locations in monsoon would experience mean wind potential greater than 200 W/m2.

Results of verification and investigation of wind velocity field forecast. Verification of wind velocity field forecast model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ogawa, Takeshi; Kayano, Mitsunaga; Kikuchi, Hideo; Abe, Takeo; Saga, Kyoji

1995-01-01

In Environmental Radioactivity Research Institute, the verification and investigation of the wind velocity field forecast model 'EXPRESS-1' have been carried out since 1991. In fiscal year 1994, as the general analysis, the validity of weather observation data, the local features of wind field, and the validity of the positions of monitoring stations were investigated. The EXPRESS which adopted 500 m mesh so far was improved to 250 m mesh, and the heightening of forecast accuracy was examined, and the comparison with another wind velocity field forecast model 'SPEEDI' was carried out. As the results, there are the places where the correlation with other points of measurement is high and low, and it was found that for the forecast of wind velocity field, by excluding the data of the points with low correlation or installing simplified observation stations to take their data in, the forecast accuracy is improved. The outline of the investigation, the general analysis of weather observation data and the improvements of wind velocity field forecast model and forecast accuracy are reported. (K.I.)

Wind speed change regionalization in China (1961–2012

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pei-Jun Shi

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This research quantitatively recognized the wind speed change using wind speed trend and trend of wind speed variability from 1961 to 2012 and regionalized the wind speed change on a county-level basis. The mean wind speed observation data and linear fitting method were used. The findings suggested that level-I regionalization includes six zones according to wind speed trend value in different regions, viz. Northeast China–North China substantial declining zone, East–Central China declining zone, Southeast China slightly declining zone, Southwest China very slightly declining zone, Northwest China declining zone, and Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau slightly declining zone. Level-II regionalization divides China into twelve regions based on trend of wind speed variability and the level-I regionalization results.

Counterstreaming solar wind halo electron events on open field lines?

Science.gov (United States)

Gosling, J. T.; Mccomas, D. J.; Phillips, J. L.

1992-01-01

Counterstreaming solar wind halo electron events have been identified as a common 1 AU signature of coronal mass ejection events, and have generally been interpreted as indicative of closed magnetic field topologies, i.e., magnetic loops or flux ropes rooted at both ends in the Sun, or detached plasmoids. In this paper we examine the possibility that these events may instead occur preferentially on open field lines, and that counterstreaming results from reflection or injection behind interplanetary shocks or from mirroring from regions of compressed magnetic field farther out in the heliosphere. We conclude that neither of these suggested sources of counterstreaming electron beams is viable and that the best interpretation of observed counterstreaming electron events in the solar wind remains that of passage of closed field structures.

Wind energy resource atlas. Volume 9. The Southwest Region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Simon, R.L.; Norman, G.T.; Elliott, D.L.; Barchet, W.R.; George, R.L.

1980-11-01

This atlas of the wind energy resource is composed of introductory and background information, a regional summary of the wind resource, and assessments of the wind resource in Nevada and California. Background on how the wind resource is assessed and on how the results of the assessment should be interpreted is presented. A description of the wind resource on a regional scale is then given. The results of the wind energy assessments for each state are assembled into an overview and summary of the various features of the regional wind energy resource. An introduction and outline to the descriptions of the wind resource given for each state are given. Assessments for individual states are presented as separate chapters. The state wind energy resources are described in greater detail than is the regional wind energy resource, and features of selected stations are discussed.

Measurement of two-dimensional Doppler wind fields using a field widened Michelson interferometer.

Science.gov (United States)

Langille, Jeffery A; Ward, William E; Scott, Alan; Arsenault, Dennis L

2013-03-10

An implementation of the field widened Michelson concept has been applied to obtain high resolution two-dimensional (2D) images of low velocity (interferometer scanning mirror position is controlled to subangstrom precision with subnanometer repeatability using the multi-application low-voltage piezoelectric instrument control electronics developed by COM DEV Ltd.; it is the first implementation of this system as a phase stepping Michelson. In this paper the calibration and characterization of the Doppler imaging system is described and the planned implementation of this new technique for imaging 2D wind and irradiance fields using the earth's airglow is introduced. Observations of Doppler winds produced by a rotating wheel are reported and shown to be of sufficient precision for buoyancy wave observations in airglow in the mesopause region of the terrestrial atmosphere.

Observation of high-resolution wind fields and offshore wind turbine wakes using TerraSAR-X imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Gies, Tobias; Jacobsen, Sven; Lehner, Susanne; Pleskachevsky, Andrey

2014-05-01

1. Introduction Numerous large-scale offshore wind farms have been built in European waters and play an important role in providing renewable energy. Therefore, knowledge of behavior of wakes, induced by large wind turbines and their impact on wind power output is important. The spatial variation of offshore wind turbine wake is very complex, depending on wind speed, wind direction, ambient atmospheric turbulence and atmospheric stability. In this study we demonstrate the application of X-band TerraSAR-X (TS-X) data with high spatial resolution for studies on wind turbine wakes in the near and far field of the offshore wind farm Alpha Ventus, located in the North Sea. Two cases which different weather conditions and different wake pattern as observed in the TS-X image are presented. 2. Methods The space-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a unique sensor that provides two-dimensional information on the ocean surface. Due to their high resolution, daylight and weather independency and global coverage, SARs are particularly suitable for many ocean and coastal applications. SAR images reveal wind variations on small scales and thus represent a valuable means in detailed wind-field analysis. The general principle of imaging turbine wakes is that the reduced wind speed downstream of offshore wind farms modulates the sea surface roughness, which in turn changes the Normalized Radar Cross Section (NRCS, denoted by σ0) in the SAR image and makes the wake visible. In this study we present two cases at the offshore wind farm Alpha Ventus to investigate turbine-induced wakes and the retrieved sea surface wind field. Using the wind streaks, visible in the TS-X image and the shadow behind the offshore wind farm, induced by turbine wake, the sea surface wind direction is derived and subsequently the sea surface wind speed is calculated using the latest generation of wind field algorithm XMOD2. 3. Case study alpha ventus Alpha Ventus is located approximately 45 km from the

Probabilistic Path Planning of Montgolfier Balloons in Strong, Uncertain Wind Fields

Science.gov (United States)

Wolf, Michael; Blackmore, James C.; Kuwata, Yoshiaki

2011-01-01

Lighter-than-air vehicles such as hot-air balloons have been proposed for exploring Saturn s moon Titan, as well as other bodies with significant atmospheres. For these vehicles to navigate effectively, it is critical to incorporate the effects of surrounding wind fields, especially as these winds will likely be strong relative to the control authority of the vehicle. Predictive models of these wind fields are available, and previous research has considered problems of planning paths subject to these predicted forces. However, such previous work has considered the wind fields as known a priori, whereas in practical applications, the actual wind vector field is not known exactly and may deviate significantly from the wind velocities estimated by the model. A probabilistic 3D path-planning algorithm was developed for balloons to use uncertain wind models to generate time-efficient paths. The nominal goal of the algorithm is to determine what altitude and what horizontal actuation, if any is available on the vehicle, to use to reach a particular goal location in the least expected time, utilizing advantageous winds. The solution also enables one to quickly evaluate the expected time-to-goal from any other location and to avoid regions of large uncertainty. This method is designed for balloons in wind fields but may be generalized for any buoyant vehicle operating in a vector field. To prepare the planning problem, the uncertainty in the wind field is modeled. Then, the problem of reaching a particular goal location is formulated as a Markov decision process (MDP) using a discretized space approach. Solving the MDP provides a policy of what actuation option (how much buoyancy change and, if applicable, horizontal actuation) should be selected at any given location to minimize the expected time-to-goal. The results provide expected time-to-goal values from any given location on the globe in addition to the action policy. This stochastic approach can also provide

SeaWinds - Oceans, Land, Polar Regions

Science.gov (United States)

1999-01-01

The SeaWinds scatterometer on the QuikScat satellite makes global radar measurements -- day and night, in clear sky and through clouds. The radar data over the oceans provide scientists and weather forecasters with information on surface wind speed and direction. Scientists also use the radar measurements directly to learn about changes in vegetation and ice extent over land and polar regions.This false-color image is based entirely on SeaWinds measurements obtained over oceans, land, and polar regions. Over the ocean, colors indicate wind speed with orange as the fastest wind speeds and blue as the slowest. White streamlines indicate the wind direction. The ocean winds in this image were measured by SeaWinds on September 20, 1999. The large storm in the Atlantic off the coast of Florida is Hurricane Gert. Tropical storm Harvey is evident as a high wind region in the Gulf of Mexico, while farther west in the Pacific is tropical storm Hilary. An extensive storm is also present in the South Atlantic Ocean near Antarctica.The land image was made from four days of SeaWinds data with the aid of a resolution enhancement algorithm developed by Dr. David Long at Brigham Young University. The lightest green areas correspond to the highest radar backscatter. Note the bright Amazon and Congo rainforests compared to the dark Sahara desert. The Amazon River is visible as a dark line running horizontally though the bright South American rain forest. Cities appear as bright spots on the images, especially in the U.S. and Europe.The image of Greenland and the north polar ice cap was generated from data acquired by SeaWinds on a single day. In the polar region portion of the image, white corresponds to the largest radar return, while purple is the lowest. The variations in color in Greenland and the polar ice cap reveal information about the ice and snow conditions present.NASA's Earth Science Enterprise is a long-term research and technology program designed to examine Earth

Colliding winds: Interaction regions with strong heat conduction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Imamura, J.N.; Chevalier, R.A.

1984-01-01

The interaction of fast stellar wind with a slower wind from previous mass loss gives rise to a region of hot, shocked gas. We obtain self-similar solutions for the interaction region under the assumptions of constant mass loss rate and wind velocity for the two winds, conversion of energy in the shock region, and either isothermal electrons and adiabatic ions or isothermal electrons ad ions in the shocked region. The isothermal assumption is intended to show the effects of strog heat conduction. The solutions have no heat conduction through the shock waves and assume that the electron and ion temperatures are equilibriated in the shock waves. The one-temperature isothermal solutions have nearly constant density through the shocked region, while the two-temperature solutions are intermediate between the one-temperature adiabatic and isothermal solutions. In the two-temperature solutions, the ion temperature goes to zero at the point where the gas comoves with the shocked region and the density peaks at this point. The solution may qualitatively describe the effects of heat conduction on interaction regions in the solar wind. It will be important to determine whether the assumption of no thermal waves outside the shocked region applies to shock waves in the solar wind

Interplanetary Magnetic Field Power Spectrum Variations in the Inner Heliosphere: A Wind and MESSENGER Study

Science.gov (United States)

Szabo, Adam; Koval, A.

2011-01-01

The newly reprocessed high time resolution (11/22 vectors/sec) Wind mission interplanetary magnetic field data and the similar observations made by the MESSENGER spacecraft in the inner heliosphere affords an opportunity to compare magnetic field power spectral density variations as a function of radial distance from the Sun under different solar wind conditions. In the reprocessed Wind Magnetic Field Investigation (MFI) data, the spin tone and its harmonics are greatly reduced that allows the meaningful fitting of power spectra to the approx.2 Hz limit above which digitization noise becomes apparent. The powe'r spectral density is computed and the spectral index is fitted for the MHD and ion inertial regime separately along with the break point between the two for various solar wind conditions. Wind and MESSENGER magnetic fluctuations are compared for times when the two spacecraft are close to radial and Parker field alignment. The functional dependence of the ion inertial spectral index and break point on solar wind plasma and magnetic field conditions will be discussed.

Wind bubbles within H ii regions around slowly moving stars

Science.gov (United States)

Mackey, Jonathan; Gvaramadze, Vasilii V.; Mohamed, Shazrene; Langer, Norbert

2015-01-01

Interstellar bubbles around O stars are driven by a combination of the star's wind and ionizing radiation output. The wind contribution is uncertain because the boundary between the wind and interstellar medium is difficult to observe. Mid-infrared observations (e.g., of the H ii region RCW 120) show arcs of dust emission around O stars, contained well within the H ii region bubble. These arcs could indicate the edge of an asymmetric stellar wind bubble, distorted by density gradients and/or stellar motion. We present two-dimensional, radiation-hydrodynamics simulations investigating the evolution of wind bubbles and H ii regions around massive stars moving through a dense (nH = 3000 cm-3), uniform medium with velocities ranging from 4 to 16 km s-1. The H ii region morphology is strongly affected by stellar motion, as expected, but the wind bubble is also very aspherical from birth, even for the lowest space velocity considered. Wind bubbles do not fill their H ii regions (we find filling factors of 10-20 per cent), at least for a main sequence star with mass M⋆ ~ 30 M⊙. Furthermore, even for supersonic velocities the wind bow shock does not significantly trap the ionization front. X-ray emission from the wind bubble is soft, faint, and comes mainly from the turbulent mixing layer between the wind bubble and the H ii region. The wind bubble radiates <1 per cent of its energy in X-rays; it loses most of its energy by turbulent mixing with cooler photoionized gas. Comparison of the simulations with the H ii region RCW 120 shows that its dynamical age is ≲0.4 Myr and that stellar motion ≲4 km s-1 is allowed, implying that the ionizing source is unlikely to be a runaway star but more likely formed in situ. The region's youth, and apparent isolation from other O or B stars, makes it very interesting for studies of massive star formation and of initial mass functions. Movies are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org

Investigation on wind turbine wakes: wind tunnel tests and field experiments with LIDARs

Science.gov (United States)

Iungo, Giacomo; Wu, Ting; Cöeffé, Juliette; Porté-Agel, Fernando; WIRE Team

2011-11-01

An investigation on the interaction between atmospheric boundary layer flow and wind turbines is carried out with wind tunnel and LIDAR measurements. The former were carried out using hot-wire anemometry and multi-hole pressure probes in the wake of a three-bladed miniature wind turbine. The wind turbine wake is characterized by a strong velocity defect in the proximity of the rotor, and its recovery is found to depend on the characteristics of the incoming atmospheric boundary layer (mean velocity and turbulence intensity profiles). Field experiments were performed using three wind LIDARs. Bi-dimensional scans are performed in order to analyse the wake wind field with different atmospheric boundary layer conditions. Furthermore, simultaneous measurements with two or three LIDARs allow the reconstruction of multi-component velocity fields. Both LIDAR and wind tunnel measurements highlight an increased turbulence level at the wake boundary for heights comparable to the top-tip of the blades; this flow feature can produce dangerous fatigue loads on following wind turbines.

Wind power in Arctic regions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lundsager, P.; Ahm, P.; Madsen, B.; Krogsgaard, P.

1993-07-01

Arctic or semi-arctic regions are often endowed with wind resources adequate for a viable production of electricity from the wind. Only limited efforts have so far been spent to introduce and to demonstrate the obvious synergy of combining wind power technology with the problems and needs of electricity generation in Arctic regions. Several factors have created a gap preventing the wind power technology carrying its full role in this context, including a certain lack of familiarity with the technology on the part of the end-users, the local utilities and communities, and a lack of commonly agreed techniques to adapt the same technology for Arctic applications on the part of the manufacturers. This report is part of a project that intends to contribute to bridging this gap. The preliminary results of a survey conducted by the project are included in this report, which is a working document for an international seminar held on June 3-4, 1993, at Risoe National Laboratory, Denmark. Following the seminar a final report will be published. It is intended that the final report will serve as a basis for a sustained, international effort to develop the wind power potential of the Arctic and semi-arctic regions. The project is carried out by a project group formed by Risoe, PA Energy and BTM Consult. The project is sponsored by the Danish Energy Agency of the Danish Ministry of Energy through grant no. ENS-51171/93-0008. (au)

Wind climate from the regional climate model REMO

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsén, Xiaoli Guo; Mann, Jakob; Berg, Jacob

2010-01-01

Selected outputs from simulations with the regional climate model REMO from the Max Planck Institute, Hamburg, Germany were studied in connection with wind energy resource assessment. It was found that the mean wind characteristics based on observations from six mid-latitude stations are well...... described by the standard winds derived from the REMO pressure data. The mean wind parameters include the directional wind distribution, directional and omni-directional mean values and Weibull fitting parameters, spectral analysis and interannual variability of the standard winds. It was also found that......, on average, the wind characteristics from REMO are in better agreement with observations than those derived from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) re-analysis pressure data. The spatial correlation of REMO surface winds in Europe...

Toward Isolation of Salient Features in Stable Boundary Layer Wind Fields that Influence Loads on Wind Turbines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jinkyoo Park

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Neutral boundary layer (NBL flow fields, commonly used in turbine load studies and design, are generated using spectral procedures in stochastic simulation. For large utility-scale turbines, stable boundary layer (SBL flow fields are of great interest because they are often accompanied by enhanced wind shear, wind veer, and even low-level jets (LLJs. The generation of SBL flow fields, in contrast to simpler stochastic simulation for NBL, requires computational fluid dynamics (CFD procedures to capture the physics and noted characteristics—such as shear and veer—that are distinct from those seen in NBL flows. At present, large-eddy simulation (LES is the most efficient CFD procedure for SBL flow field generation and related wind turbine loads studies. Design standards, such as from the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC, provide guidance albeit with simplifying assumptions (one such deals with assuming constant variance of turbulence over the rotor and recommend standard target turbulence power spectra and coherence functions to allow NBL flow field simulation. In contrast, a systematic SBL flow field simulation procedure has not been offered for design or for site assessment. It is instructive to compare LES-generated SBL flow fields with stochastic NBL flow fields and associated loads which we evaluate for a 5-MW turbine; in doing so, we seek to isolate distinguishing characteristics of wind shear, wind veer, and turbulence variation over the rotor plane in the alternative flow fields and in the turbine loads. Because of known differences in NBL-stochastic and SBL-LES wind fields but an industry preference for simpler stochastic simulation in design practice, this study investigates if one can reproduce stable atmospheric conditions using stochastic approaches with appropriate corrections for shear, veer, turbulence, etc. We find that such simple tuning cannot consistently match turbine target SBL load statistics, even though

Wind field forecast for accidental release of radiative materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kang Ling; Chen Jiayi; Cai Xuhui

2003-01-01

A meso-scale wind field forecast model was designed for emergency environmental assessment in case of accidental release of radiative materials from a nuclear power station. Actual practice of the model showed that it runs fast, has wind field prediction function, and the result given is accurate. With meteorological data collected from weather stations, and pre-treated by a wind field diagnostic model, the initial wind fields at different times were inputted as initial values and assimilation fields for the forecasting model. The model, in turn, worked out to forecast meso-scale wind field of 24 hours in a horizontal domain of 205 km x 205 km. And then, the diagnostic model was employed again with the forecasting data to obtain more detail information of disturbed wind field by local terrain in a smaller domain of 20.5 km x 20.5 km, of which the nuclear power station is at the center. Using observation data in January, April, July and October of 1996 over the area of Hangzhou Bay, wind fields in these 4 months were simulated by different assimilation time and number of the weather stations for a sensitive test. Results indicated that the method used here has increased accuracy of the forecasted wind fields. And incorporating diagnostic method with the wind field forecast model has greatly increased efficiency of the wind field forecast for the smaller domain. This model and scheme have been used in Environmental Consequence Assessment System of Nuclear Accident in Qinshan Area

Investigation of the potential of wind energy applications in the Sct. Petersburg region. Pre-feasibility study report. Phase 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-11-01

It was proposed to initiate an investigation and, if found to be viable, a feasibility study of the possibilities for partly substituting and supplementing the existing nuclear and fossil fuel based energy supply of the St. Petersburg region with environmentally benign wind energy. The feasibility study is expected to lead to one or more pilot projects. The proposal outlines a three-phased project including an investigation, a feasibility study and a full scale demonstration of wind energy in this region. A 4th phase is envisaged, and this will include the large scale introduction of wind energy applications using national and international financing and resulting in increased local production. The report covers the first phase, the investigation which includes data acquisition and desk studies. It is shown that technically exploitable wind potential exists in the St. Petersburg region, that local production of wind turbine equipment will reduce wind turbine costs due to decreased transport costs and lower local salaries, that suitable sites for the demonstration of both grid-connected wind farms and wind-diesel systems have been preliminarily identified and that the demonstration plants investigated have exhibited reasonable economic parameters - IRR in the range of 9 - 15%. But a feasibility study phase (2) including engineering and economic analyses must be carried out in order to reach the necessary detailed understanding of the technical and economic implications of full scale demonstration projects. (EG)

Appendix I1-2 to Wind HUI Initiative 1: Field Campaign Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

John Zack; Deborah Hanley; Dora Nakafuji

2012-07-15

This report is an appendix to the Hawaii WindHUI efforts to dev elop and operationalize short-term wind forecasting and wind ramp event forecasting capabilities. The report summarizes the WindNET field campaign deployment experiences and challenges. As part of the WindNET project on the Big Island of Hawaii, AWS Truepower (AWST) conducted a field campaign to assess the viability of deploying a network of monitoring systems to aid in local wind energy forecasting. The data provided at these monitoring locations, which were strategically placed around the Big Island of Hawaii based upon results from the Oahu Wind Integration and Transmission Study (OWITS) observational targeting study (Figure 1), provided predictive indicators for improving wind forecasts and developing responsive strategies for managing real-time, wind-related system events. The goal of the field campaign was to make measurements from a network of remote monitoring devices to improve 1- to 3-hour look ahead forecasts for wind facilities.

Statistical modeling of temperature, humidity and wind fields in the atmospheric boundary layer over the Siberian region

Science.gov (United States)

Lomakina, N. Ya.

2017-11-01

The work presents the results of the applied climatic division of the Siberian region into districts based on the methodology of objective classification of the atmospheric boundary layer climates by the "temperature-moisture-wind" complex realized with using the method of principal components and the special similarity criteria of average profiles and the eigen values of correlation matrices. On the territory of Siberia, it was identified 14 homogeneous regions for winter season and 10 regions were revealed for summer. The local statistical models were constructed for each region. These include vertical profiles of mean values, mean square deviations, and matrices of interlevel correlation of temperature, specific humidity, zonal and meridional wind velocity. The advantage of the obtained local statistical models over the regional models is shown.

Wind loads on flat plate photovoltaic array fields

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, R. D.; Zimmerman, D. K.

1981-01-01

The results of an experimental analysis (boundary layer wind tunnel test) of the aerodynamic forces resulting from winds acting on flat plate photovoltaic arrays are presented. Local pressure coefficient distributions and normal force coefficients on the arrays are shown and compared to theoretical results. Parameters that were varied when determining the aerodynamic forces included tilt angle, array separation, ground clearance, protective wind barriers, and the effect of the wind velocity profile. Recommended design wind forces and pressures are presented, which envelop the test results for winds perpendicular to the array's longitudinal axis. This wind direction produces the maximum wind loads on the arrays except at the array edge where oblique winds produce larger edge pressure loads. The arrays located at the outer boundary of an array field have a protective influence on the interior arrays of the field. A significant decrease of the array wind loads were recorded in the wind tunnel test on array panels located behind a fence and/or interior to the array field compared to the arrays on the boundary and unprotected from the wind. The magnitude of this decrease was the same whether caused by a fence or upwind arrays.

Optimal wind-hydro solution for the Marmara region of Turkey to meet electricity demand

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dursun, Bahtiyar; Alboyaci, Bora; Gokcol, Cihan

2011-01-01

Wind power technology is now a reliable electricity production system. It presents an economically attractive solution for the continuously increasing energy demand of the Marmara region located in Turkey. However, the stochastic behavior of wind speed in the Marmara region can lead to significant disharmony between wind energy production and electricity demand. Therefore, to overcome wind's variable nature, a more reliable solution would be to integrate hydropower with wind energy. In this study, a methodology to estimate an optimal wind-hydro solution is developed and it is subsequently applied to six typical different site cases in the Marmara region in order to define the most beneficial configuration of the wind-hydro system. All numerical calculations are based on the long-term wind speed measurements, electrical load demand and operational characteristics of the system components. -- Research highlights: → This study is the first application of a wind-hydro pumped storage system in Turkey. → The methodology developed in this study is applied to the six sites in the Marmara region of Turkey. A wind - hydro pumped storage system is proposed to meet the electric energy demand of the Marmara region.

Hourly Wind Speed Interval Prediction in Arid Regions

Science.gov (United States)

Chaouch, M.; Ouarda, T.

2013-12-01

The long and extended warm and dry summers, the low rate of rain and humidity are the main factors that explain the increase of electricity consumption in hot arid regions. In such regions, the ventilating and air-conditioning installations, that are typically the most energy-intensive among energy consumption activities, are essential for securing healthy, safe and suitable indoor thermal conditions for building occupants and stored materials. The use of renewable energy resources such as solar and wind represents one of the most relevant solutions to overcome the increase of the electricity demand challenge. In the recent years, wind energy is gaining more importance among the researchers worldwide. Wind energy is intermittent in nature and hence the power system scheduling and dynamic control of wind turbine requires an estimate of wind energy. Accurate forecast of wind speed is a challenging task for the wind energy research field. In fact, due to the large variability of wind speed caused by the unpredictable and dynamic nature of the earth's atmosphere, there are many fluctuations in wind power production. This inherent variability of wind speed is the main cause of the uncertainty observed in wind power generation. Furthermore, producing wind power forecasts might be obtained indirectly by modeling the wind speed series and then transforming the forecasts through a power curve. Wind speed forecasting techniques have received substantial attention recently and several models have been developed. Basically two main approaches have been proposed in the literature: (1) physical models such as Numerical Weather Forecast and (2) statistical models such as Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models, Neural Networks. While the initial focus in the literature has been on point forecasts, the need to quantify forecast uncertainty and communicate the risk of extreme ramp events has led to an interest in producing probabilistic forecasts. In short term

Cooperative field test program for wind systems. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bollmeier, W.S. II; Dodge, D.M.

1992-03-01

The objectives of the Federal Wind Energy Program, managed by the US Department of Energy (DOE), are (1) to assist industry and utilities in achieving a multi-regional US market penetration of wind systems, and (2) to establish the United States as the world leader in the development of advanced wind turbine technology. In 1984, the program conducted a series of planning workshops with representatives from the wind energy industry to obtain input on the Five-Year Research Plan then being prepared by DOE. One specific suggestion that came out of these meetings was that the federal program should conduct cooperative research tests with industry to enhance the technology transfer process. It was also felt that the active involvement of industry in DOE-funded research would improve the state of the art of wind turbine technology. DOE established the Cooperative Field Test Program (CFTP) in response to that suggestion. This program was one of the first in DOE to feature joint industry-government research test teams working toward common objectives.

Wintertime slope winds and its turbulent characteristics in the Yeongdong region of Korea

Science.gov (United States)

Jeon, H. R.; Eun, S. H.; Kim, B. G.; Lee, Y. H.

2015-12-01

The Yeongdong region has various meteorological phenomenons by virtue of complicated geographical characteristics with high Taebaek Mountains running from the north to the south and an adjacent East Sea to the east. There are few studies on the slope winds and its turbulent characteristics over the complex terrain, which are critical information in mountain climbing, hiking, paragliding, even winter sports such as alpine skiing and ski jump etc. For the understanding of diverse mountain winds in the complex terrain in Yeongdong, hot-wire anemometers (Campbell Scientific) have been installed at a couple of sites since October 2014 and several automatic weather stations at several sites around the mountainous region in Yeongdong since November 2012.WRF model simulations have been also done with an ultra-fine horizontal resolution of 300 m for 10 years. Generally, model and observation show that the dominant wind is westerly, approximately more than 75%. It is quite consistent that wind fields from both model and observation agree with each other in the valley region and at the top of the mountain, but there is a significant disagreement in wind direction specifically in the slide slope. Probably this implies model's performance with even an ultra-fine resolution is still not enough for the slide slope domain of complex terrains. Despite that, the observation clearly showed up- and down slope winds for the weak synoptic conditions carefully selected such as strong insolation and a synoptic wind less than 5m/s in the 850 hPa. The up- and down slope flows are also demonstrated in the snow-covered condition as well as grass ground. Further, planar fit transformation algorithm against the coordinate tilt has been applied to raw wind data (10Hz) of the slope site for the analysis of turbulence properties. Turbulence also increases with synoptic wind strength. Detailed analysis of mechanical turbulence and buoyance will be discussed for different surface properties (grass

Experimental study of the flow field behind a large wind turbine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Asimakopoulos, D.N.; Helmis, C.G; Kambezidis, H.; Hoegstroem, U.

1985-01-01

The paper describes the recent joint experimental work of Uppsala and University of Athens in Sweden. Major target of this work was the study of the flow field behind a large, 2 MW, WECS at Naesudden in Gotland island. For this purpose the near-by 145m meteorgological mast which was specially equipped with turbulence instruments together with two tethered balloon systems and a specially designed high resolution acoustic sounder in a novel configuration were used. Measurements were taken under different meteorological conditions during summer 1984. Preliminary results will be presented which will include profiles of major meteorological paramenters and their associated statistics from the mast during occasions with the turbulent flow from their turbine passing through, as well as tethered balloon ascends in and out of the wake. Along-side the meterological instrumentation a triple acoustic sounder system in a split 'umbrella' configuration was giving turbulence and wind information at different distances from the WECS and in some occasions covering part of the expected wake and part of the free of turbulence region.

The Morphology of the Solar Wind Magnetic Field Draping on the Dayside of Mars and Its Variability

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, Xiaohua; Ma, Yingjuan; Luhmann, Janet; Dong, Yaxue; Brain, David; Hurley, Dana; Dong, Chuanfei; Lee, Christina O.; Jakosky, Bruce

2018-04-01

The magnetic field draping pattern in the magnetosheath of Mars is of interest for what it tells us about both the solar wind interaction with the Mars obstacle and the use of the field measured there as a proxy for the upstream interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) clock angle. We apply a time-dependent, global magnetohydrodynamic model toward quantifying the spatial and temporal variations of the magnetic field draping direction on the Martian dayside above 500-km altitude. The magnetic field and plasma are self-consistently solved over one Mars rotation period, with the dynamics of the field morphology considered as the result of the rotation of the crustal field orientation. Our results show how the magnetic field direction on the plane perpendicular to the solar wind flow direction gradually departs from the IMF as the solar wind penetrates toward the obstacle and into the tail region. This clock angle departure occurs mainly inside the magnetic pileup region and tailward of the terminator plane, exhibiting significant dawn-dusk and north-south asymmetries. Inside the dayside sheath region, the field direction has the greatest departure from the IMF-perpendicular component direction downstream of the quasi-parallel bow shock, which for the nominal Parker spiral is over the dawn quadrant. Thus, the best region to obtain an IMF clock angle proxy is within the dayside magnetosheath at sufficiently high altitudes, particularly over subsolar and dusk sectors. Our results illustrate that the crustal field has only a mild influence on the magnetic field draping direction within the magnetosheath region.

The role of streamline curvature in sand dune dynamics: evidence from field and wind tunnel measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Wiggs, Giles F. S.; Livingstone, Ian; Warren, Andrew

1996-09-01

Field measurements on an unvegetated, 10 m high barchan dune in Oman are compared with measurements over a 1:200 scale fixed model in a wind tunnel. Both the field and wind tunnel data demonstrate similar patterns of wind and shear velocity over the dune, confirming significant flow deceleration upwind of and at the toe of the dune, acceleration of flow up the windward slope, and deceleration between the crest and brink. This pattern, including the widely reported upwind reduction in shear velocity, reflects observations of previous studies. Such a reduction in shear velocity upwind of the dune should result in a reduction in sand transport and subsequent sand deposition. This is not observed in the field. Wind tunnel modelling using a near-surface pulse-wire probe suggests that the field method of shear velocity derivation is inadequate. The wind tunnel results exhibit no reduction in shear velocity upwind of or at the toe of the dune. Evidence provided by Reynolds stress profiles and turbulence intensities measured in the wind tunnel suggest that this maintenance of upwind shear stress may be a result of concave (unstable) streamline curvature. These additional surface stresses are not recorded by the techniques used in the field measurements. Using the occurrence of streamline curvature as a starting point, a new 2-D model of dune dynamics is deduced. This model relies on the establishment of an equilibrium between windward slope morphology, surface stresses induced by streamline curvature, and streamwise acceleration. Adopting the criteria that concave streamline curvature and streamwise acceleration both increase surface shear stress, whereas convex streamline curvature and deceleration have the opposite effect, the relationships between form and process are investigated in each of three morphologically distinct zones: the upwind interdune and concave toe region of the dune, the convex portion of the windward slope, and the crest-brink region. The

Signature of open magnetic field lines in the extended solar corona and of solar wind acceleration

Science.gov (United States)

Antonucci, E.; Giordano, S.; Benna, C.; Kohl, J. L.; Noci, G.; Michels, J.; Fineschi, S.

1997-01-01

The observations carried out with the ultraviolet coronagraph spectrometer onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) are discussed. The purpose of the observations was to determine the line of sight and radial velocity fields in coronal regions with different magnetic topology. The results showed that the regions where the high speed solar wind flows along open field lines are characterized by O VI 1032 and HI Lyman alpha 1216 lines. The global coronal maps of the line of sight velocity were reconstructed. The corona height, where the solar wind reaches 100 km/s, was determined.

Wind distribution and capacity factor estimation for wind turbines in the coastal region of South Africa

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ayodele, T.R.; Jimoh, A.A.; Munda, J.L.; Agee, J.T.

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► We evaluate capacity factor of some commercially available wind turbines. ► Wind speed in the sites studied can best be modelled using Weibull distribution. ► Site WM05 has the highest wind power potential while site WM02 has the lowest. ► More wind power can be harnessed during the day period compared to the night. ► Turbine K seems to be the best turbine for the coastal region of South Africa. - Abstract: The operating curve parameters of a wind turbine should match the local wind regime optimally to ensure maximum exploitation of available energy in a mass of moving air. This paper provides estimates of the capacity factor of 20 commercially available wind turbines, based on the local wind characteristics of ten different sites located in the Western Cape region of South Africa. Ten-min average time series wind-speed data for a period of 1 year are used for the study. First, the wind distribution that best models the local wind regime of the sites is determined. This is based on root mean square error (RMSE) and coefficient of determination (R 2 ) which are used to test goodness of fit. First, annual, seasonal, diurnal and peak period-capacity factor are estimated analytically. Then, the influence of turbine power curve parameters on the capacity factor is investigated. Some of the key results show that the wind distribution of the entire site can best be modelled statistically using the Weibull distribution. Site WM05 (Napier) presents the highest capacity factor for all the turbines. This indicates that this site has the highest wind power potential of all the available sites. Site WM02 (Calvinia) has the lowest capacity factor i.e. lowest wind power potential. This paper can assist in the planning and development of large-scale wind power-generating sites in South Africa.

The Astrobiology Field Guide in World Wind

Science.gov (United States)

Scalice, D. M.

2004-12-01

In collaboration with the Australian Centre for Astrobiology (ACA), and NASA Learning Technologies (NLT), and utilizing the powerful visualization capabilities of their "World Wind" software, the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) is crafting a prototype "Astrobiology Field Guide" to bring the field experiences and stories of astrobiology science to the public and classrooms around the world. The prototype focuses on one region in particular - The Pilbara in Western Australia. This first Field Guide "hotspot" is an internationally recognized area hosting the best known example of the earliest evidence of life on Earth - a stromatolitic chert precipitation in the 3.45 Ga Warrawoona Group. The goal of the Astrobiology Field Guide is to engage students of all ages with the ongoing field expeditions of today's astrobiologists as they explore the ends of the Earth searching for clues to life's origin, evolution, and distribution in the Universe. The NAI hopes to expand this Field Guide to include many more astrobiologically relevant areas across the globe such as Cuatro Cienegas in Mexico, the Rio Tinto in Spain, Yellowstone National Park in the US, and the Lost City hydrothermal vent field on the mid-Atlantic ridge - and possibly sites on Mars. To that end, we will be conducting feasibility studies and evaluations with informal and formal education contacts. The Astrobiology Field Guide is also serving as a cornerstone to educational materials being developed focused on the Pilbara region for use in classrooms in Australia, the UK, and potentially the US. These materials are being developed by the Australian Centre for Astrobiology, and the ICT Innovations Centre at Macquarie University in Sydney, in collaboration with the NAI and the Centre for Astronomy and Science Education at the University of Glamorgan in the UK.

Point Climat no. 21 'Regional wind power plans: is there enough wind to reach the Grenelle wind power targets?'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bordier, Cecile; Charentenay, Jeremie de

2012-01-01

Among the publications of CDC Climat Research, 'Climate Briefs' presents, in a few pages, hot topics in climate change policy. This issue addresses the following points: Regional wind power plans assess the wind power development potential of every French region. The aggregate regional potential largely exceeds national targets for 2020. However, achieving these targets is still far from guaranteed: the forecasted potential is theoretical, and the issues involved in implementing wind power projects on the ground will likely reduce this potential

Investigation of wind characteristics and assessment of wind energy potential for Waterloo region, Canada

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Meishen; Li Xianguo

2005-01-01

Wind energy becomes more and more attractive as one of the clean renewable energy resources. Knowledge of the wind characteristics is of great importance in the exploitation of wind energy resources for a site. It is essential in designing or selecting a wind energy conversion system for any application. This study examines the wind characteristics for the Waterloo region in Canada based on a data source measured at an elevation 10 m above the ground level over a 5-year period (1999-2003) with the emphasis on the suitability for wind energy technology applications. Characteristics such as annual, seasonal, monthly and diurnal wind speed variations and wind direction variations are examined. Wind speed data reveal that the windy months in Waterloo are from November to April, defined as the Cold Season in this study, with February being the windiest month. It is helpful that the high heating demand in the Cold Season coincides with the windy season. Analysis shows that the day time is the windy time, with 2 p.m. in the afternoon being the windiest moment. Moreover, a model derived from the maximum entropy principle (MEP) is applied to determine the diurnal, monthly, seasonal and yearly wind speed frequency distributions, and the corresponding Lagrangian parameters are determined. Based on these wind speed distributions, this study quantifies the available wind energy potential to provide practical information for the application of wind energy in this area. The yearly average wind power density is 105 W/m 2 . The day and night time wind power density in the Cold Season is 180 and 111 W/m 2 , respectively

Solar wind energy transfer regions inside the dayside magnetopause

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lundin, R.; Dubinin, E.

1984-01-01

PROGNOZ-7 high temporal resolution measurements of the ion composition and hot plasma distribution in the dayside high latitude boundary layer near noon have revealed that magnetosheath plasma may penetrate the dayside magnetopause and form high density, high β, magnetosheath-like regions inside the magnetopause. From these measurements it is demonstrated that the magnetosheath injection regions most probably play an important role in transferring solar wind energy into the magnetosphere. The transfer regions are characterized by a strong perpendicular flow towards dawn or dusk (depending on local time) but are also observed to expand rapidly along the boundary field lines. This increased flow component transverse to the local magnetic field corresponds to a predominantly radial electric field of up to several mV m -1 , which indicates that the injected magnetosheath plasma causes an enhanced polarization of the boundary layer. Polarization of the boundary layer can therefore be considered a result of a local MHD-process where magnetosheath plasma excess momentum is converted into electromagnetic energy (electric field), i.e. there is an MHD-generator. It was observed that the boundary layer is charged up to tens of kilovolts, a potential which may be highly variable on e.g. the presence of a momentum exchange by the energy transfer regions. (author)

Experimental study of the effects of alternating fields on HTS coils according to the winding insulation conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hwang, Y J; Lee, T S; Lee, W S; Ko, T K; Ahn, M C

2013-01-01

This paper examines the effects of alternating fields on high-temperature superconducting (HTS) coils according to the winding insulation condition. Alternating fields can occur in synchronous machines (armature reaction, faults) and other devices. In superconducting synchronous machines, alternating fields affect the operational characteristics of the machine and the superconducting field coil. Therefore, a method of reducing the effects of alternating fields is necessary in superconducting synchronous design. In this study, the effects of alternating fields on the HTS field coil according to the winding insulation condition were experimentally evaluated. The experimental results show that HTS coils made using the no-insulation technique can be a solution for reducing the effects of the alternating field. These results are expected to suggest useful data for applications of HTS field coils in superconducting synchronous machines. (paper)

Spatial interpolation of fine particulate matter concentrations using the shortest wind-field path distance.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Longxiang Li

Full Text Available Effective assessments of air-pollution exposure depend on the ability to accurately predict pollutant concentrations at unmonitored locations, which can be achieved through spatial interpolation. However, most interpolation approaches currently in use are based on the Euclidean distance, which cannot account for the complex nonlinear features displayed by air-pollution distributions in the wind-field. In this study, an interpolation method based on the shortest path distance is developed to characterize the impact of complex urban wind-field on the distribution of the particulate matter concentration. In this method, the wind-field is incorporated by first interpolating the observed wind-field from a meteorological-station network, then using this continuous wind-field to construct a cost surface based on Gaussian dispersion model and calculating the shortest wind-field path distances between locations, and finally replacing the Euclidean distances typically used in Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW with the shortest wind-field path distances. This proposed methodology is used to generate daily and hourly estimation surfaces for the particulate matter concentration in the urban area of Beijing in May 2013. This study demonstrates that wind-fields can be incorporated into an interpolation framework using the shortest wind-field path distance, which leads to a remarkable improvement in both the prediction accuracy and the visual reproduction of the wind-flow effect, both of which are of great importance for the assessment of the effects of pollutants on human health.

Advancements in Wind Integration Study Data Modeling: The Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit; Preprint

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Draxl, C.; Hodge, B. M.; Orwig, K.; Jones, W.; Searight, K.; Getman, D.; Harrold, S.; McCaa, J.; Cline, J.; Clark, C.

2013-10-01

Regional wind integration studies in the United States require detailed wind power output data at many locations to perform simulations of how the power system will operate under high-penetration scenarios. The wind data sets that serve as inputs into the study must realistically reflect the ramping characteristics, spatial and temporal correlations, and capacity factors of the simulated wind plants, as well as be time synchronized with available load profiles. The Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit described in this paper fulfills these requirements. A wind resource dataset, wind power production time series, and simulated forecasts from a numerical weather prediction model run on a nationwide 2-km grid at 5-min resolution will be made publicly available for more than 110,000 onshore and offshore wind power production sites.

Wind power in the Euro-Mediterranean region: development and prospects; Energia eolica en la region euromediterranea: desarrollo y perspectivas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fernandez Latorre, F. M.; Ventura Fernandez, J.

2011-07-01

This work is a first approach to wind development in the Euro-Mediterranean region and identifies the major initiatives underway as well as development conditions. It includes a study case of wind power management in the Strait of Gibraltar area. Wind development is analyzed in the Euro-Mediterranean territories by comparing Spanish regions with different States using various indicators. Key countries are noted for their potential and policies to promote wind based alternatives. (Author)

Probability Distributions for Cyclone Key Parameters and Cyclonic Wind Speed for the East Coast of Indian Region

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pradeep K. Goyal

2011-09-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a study conducted on the probabilistic distribution of key cyclone parameters and the cyclonic wind speed by analyzing the cyclone track records obtained from India meteorological department for east coast region of India. The dataset of historical landfalling storm tracks in India from 1975–2007 with latitude /longitude and landfall locations are used to map the cyclone tracks in a region of study. The statistical tests were performed to find a best fit distribution to the track data for each cyclone parameter. These parameters include central pressure difference, the radius of maximum wind speed, the translation velocity, track angle with site and are used to generate digital simulated cyclones using wind field simulation techniques. For this, different sets of values for all the cyclone key parameters are generated randomly from their probability distributions. Using these simulated values of the cyclone key parameters, the distribution of wind velocity at a particular site is obtained. The same distribution of wind velocity at the site is also obtained from actual track records and using the distributions of the cyclone key parameters as published in the literature. The simulated distribution is compared with the wind speed distributions obtained from actual track records. The findings are useful in cyclone disaster mitigation.

Ulysses Observations of Tripolar Guide-Magnetic Field Perturbations Across Solar Wind Reconnection Exhausts

Science.gov (United States)

Eriksson, S.; Peng, B.; Markidis, S.; Gosling, J. T.; McComas, D. J.; Lapenta, G.; Newman, D. L.

2014-12-01

We report observations from 15 solar wind reconnection exhausts encountered along the Ulysses orbit beyond 4 AU in 1996-1999 and 2002-2005. The events, which lasted between 17 and 45 min, were found at heliospheric latitudes between -36o and 21o with one event detected as high as 58o. All events shared a common characteristic of a tripolar guide-magnetic field perturbation being detected across the observed exhausts. The signature consists of an enhanced guide field magnitude within the exhaust center and two regions of significantly depressed guide-fields adjacent to the center region. The events displayed magnetic field shear angles as low as 37o with a mean of 89o. This corresponds to a strong external guide field relative to the anti-parallel reconnecting component of the magnetic field with a mean ratio of 1.3 and a maximum ratio of 3.1. A 2-D kinetic reconnection simulation for realistic solar wind conditions reveals that tripolar guide fields form at current sheets in the presence of multiple X-lines as two magnetic islands interact with one another for such strong guide fields. The Ulysses observations are also compared with the results of a 3-D kinetic simulation of multiple flux ropes in a strong guide field.

Wind Resource Variations Over Selected Sites in the West African Sub-Region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iheonu, E. E.; Akingbade, F.O A.; Ocholi, M.

2002-01-01

The analysis of wind characteristics and wind resource potentials at 4 locations in the West African sub-region is presented, applying data obtained at the Ibadan central station of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA-Ibadan, Nigeria). The study has shown that the annual variations of wind speed have coefficient of variability between 10 and 15% but the available wind power at the studied locations is generally poor with values ranging between 2 and 10 Wm2 at the standard meteorological height of 10 m. Cotonou (Lat. 6.4 0 N, Long. 2.3 0 E) Benin Republic has however been distinguished from the other three locations in Nigeria, as the most promising site for wind resource development and utilization in the sub-region. With appropriate choice of wind turbine characteristics and design efficiency, establishing wind farms at the Cotonou location for electrical energy production could be feasible

Design and field testing of Savonius wind pump in East Africa

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rabah, K.V.O.; Osawa, B.M.

1995-04-01

We present here improvements in the wind-scoop geometry and efficiency of a double-stack Savonius rotor, developed through a series of wind tunnel and field testing in East Africa. On an aerodynamic performance basis, the Savonius rotor cannot generally compete with other types of wind turbines. This is entirely due to its mode of operation. Unlike its counter-parts that operate by rotating around a horizontal axis, it rotates around a vertical axis. This has the unfortunate effect of lowering its efficiency, but it has several compensating factors. Its main advantages are that it has better starting torque performance with operating characteristics independent of the wind direction. In addition, it is simple in structure and the fabrication technology required is less sophisticated when compared to similar types of windmills. This makes it a suitable system for small scale applications in wind energy conversion; especially in remote rural regions in developing countries. (author). 8 refs, 5 figs

A computational fluid dynamics approach to wind prospecting: Lessons from the U.S. Appalachian region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Womeldorf, Carole A.; Chimeli, Ariaster B.

2014-01-01

A number of technological, institutional and market developments have lowered the minimally economic viable wind speeds for wind power generation while contributing to increasing profitability of the wind power industry in recent decades. Yet, information on the potential for wind power generation is still highly uncertain in many regions of the globe, particularly those with complex terrain features. We focus on an area by the foothills of the Appalachian region. Because we do not have precise wind measurements for this area, we do not attempt to produce an actual wind map, but instead use a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model to demonstrate the calculation of high resolution wind speeds with complex terrain information. Using this approach, we show how finer wind speed information can impact the status of an overlooked region in terms of its wind potential and improve wind prospecting by enabling investors to focus on the most promising sub-regions of a study area. Since private sector investors might not have the incentive to invest in finer-scale wind resource assessment that can be easily observed by competitors, public sector incentives or direct investments can help to promote wind power generation in overlooked but viable regions. - Highlights: • Costly expansion of transmission stimulates wind prospecting in accessible regions. • A search model motivates the rationale for wind prospecting in a given region. • A computational fluid dynamics model simulates finer wind information. • The distribution of wind speeds is estimated using finer wind information. • An initially overlooked region might become attractive for wind prospecting

Study on the wind field and pollutant dispersion in street canyons using a stable numerical method.

Science.gov (United States)

Xia, Ji-Yang; Leung, Dennis Y C

2005-01-01

A stable finite element method for the time dependent Navier-Stokes equations was used for studying the wind flow and pollutant dispersion within street canyons. A three-step fractional method was used to solve the velocity field and the pressure field separately from the governing equations. The Streamline Upwind Petrov-Galerkin (SUPG) method was used to get stable numerical results. Numerical oscillation was minimized and satisfactory results can be obtained for flows at high Reynolds numbers. Simulating the flow over a square cylinder within a wide range of Reynolds numbers validates the wind field model. The Strouhal numbers obtained from the numerical simulation had a good agreement with those obtained from experiment. The wind field model developed in the present study is applied to simulate more complex flow phenomena in street canyons with two different building configurations. The results indicated that the flow at rooftop of buildings might not be assumed parallel to the ground as some numerical modelers did. A counter-clockwise rotating vortex may be found in street canyons with an inflow from the left to right. In addition, increasing building height can increase velocity fluctuations in the street canyon under certain circumstances, which facilitate pollutant dispersion. At high Reynolds numbers, the flow regimes in street canyons do not change with inflow velocity.

Construction of Solar-Wind-Like Magnetic Fields

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Dana Aaron

2012-01-01

Fluctuations in the solar wind fields tend to not only have velocities and magnetic fields correlated in the sense consistent with Alfven waves traveling from the Sun, but they also have the magnitude of the magnetic field remarkably constant despite their being broadband. This paper provides, for the first time, a method for constructing fields with nearly constant magnetic field, zero divergence, and with any specified power spectrum for the fluctuations of the components of the field. Every wave vector, k, is associated with two polarizations the relative phases of these can be chosen to minimize the variance of the field magnitude while retaining the\\random character of the fields. The method is applied to a case with one spatial coordinate that demonstrates good agreement with observed time series and power spectra of the magnetic field in the solar wind, as well as with the distribution of the angles of rapid changes (discontinuities), thus showing a deep connection between two seemingly unrelated issues. It is suggested that using this construction will lead to more realistic simulations of solar wind turbulence and of the propagation of energetic particles.

Wind energy resource atlas. Volume 7. The south central region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Edwards, R.L.; Graves, L.F.; Sprankle, A.C.; Elliott, D.L.; Barchet, W.R.; George, R.L.

1981-03-01

This atlas of the south central region combines seven collections of wind resource data: one for the region, and one for each of the six states (Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas). At the state level, features of the climate, topography, and wind resource are discussed in greater detail than that provided in the regional discussion, and the data locations on which the assessment is based are mapped. Variations, over several time scales, in the wind resource at selected stations in each state are shown on graphs of monthly average and interannual wind speed and power, and hourly average wind speed for each season. Other graphs present speed, direction, and duration frequencies of the wind at these locations.

Surface drag effects on simulated wind fields in high-resolution atmospheric forecast model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lim, Kyo Sun; Lim, Jong Myoung; Ji, Young Yong [Environmental Radioactivity Assessment Team,Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Shin, Hye Yum [NOAA/Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton (United States); Hong, Jin Kyu [Yonsei University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2017-04-15

It has been reported that the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model generally shows a substantial over prediction bias at low to moderate wind speeds and winds are too geostrophic (Cheng and Steenburgh 2005), which limits the application of WRF model in the area that requires the accurate surface wind estimation such as wind-energy application, air-quality studies, and radioactive-pollutants dispersion studies. The surface drag generated by the subgrid-scale orography is represented by introducing a sink term in the momentum equation in their studies. The purpose of our study is to evaluate the simulated meteorological fields in the high-resolution WRF framework, that includes the parameterization of subgrid-scale orography developed by Mass and Ovens (2010), and enhance the forecast skill of low-level wind fields, which plays an important role in transport and dispersion of air pollutants including radioactive pollutants. The positive bias in 10-m wind speed is significantly alleviated by implementing the subgrid-scale orography parameterization, while other meteorological fields including 10-m wind direction are not changed. Increased variance of subgrid- scale orography enhances the sink of momentum and further reduces the bias in 10-m wind speed.

Regional tendencies of extreme wind characteristics in Hungary

Science.gov (United States)

Radics, Dr.; Bartholy, Dr.; Péliné

2009-09-01

Human activities have substantial effects on climate system. It has already accepted that change in the long-term climatic mean state will have significant consequences in the global economy and society, but the most important effects of climate change may come from changes in the intensity and frequency of climatic extremes. It is therefore of great interest to document the extremes of surface wind that could assist in estimating the regional effects of climate change. The research presented is based on 34-year-long (1975-2008) wind (speed, direction, and wind gust) data sets of 36 Hungarian synoptic meteorological stations. After processing (including digitalisation of old instrumental records, quality control and homogenisation of wind time series) the measured wind data sets, time series and complex wind climate analysis were carried out. Spatial and temporal distributions of mean and extreme wind climate characteristics were estimated, wind extremes and trends were interpolated and mapped over the country. Finally, measured and reanalysed (ERA40) wind data were compared over Hungary, in order to verify not only the validity of ERA40 reanalysed data sets, but the adaptability of climate simulation results in estimation of regional climate change effects.

Low frequency geomagnetic field fluctuations at low latitude during the passage of a higher pressure solar wind region

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

U. Villante

1997-06-01

Full Text Available The passage of a higher pressure solar wind region at the Earth's orbit marked the onset of low latitude (L=1.6 fluctuations in the frequency range (0.8–5.5 mHz for both the horizontal geomagnetic field components. Spectral peaks mostly occur at the same frequencies as the spectral enhancements which appeared in the long term analysis of experimental measurements from the same station and were tentatively interpreted in terms of ground signatures of global magnetospheric modes. A comparison with simultaneous observations discussed by previous investigations allows us to conclude that the same set of frequencies is enhanced in a wide portion of the Earth's magnetosphere.

On the Use of Coupled Wind, Wave, and Current Fields in the Simulation of Loads on Bottom-Supported Offshore Wind Turbines during Hurricanes: March 2012 - September 2015

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Eungsoo [Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States); Manuel, Lance [Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States); Curcic, Milan [Univ. of Miami, Coral Gables, FL (United States); Chen, Shuyi S. [Univ. of Miami, Coral Gables, FL (United States); Phillips, Caleb [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Veers, Paul [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2016-06-01

In the United States, potential offshore wind plant sites have been identified along the Atlantic seaboard and in the Gulf of Mexico. It is imperative that we define external conditions associated with hurricanes and severe winter storms and consider load cases for which wind turbines may need to be designed. We selected two hurricanes, Ike (2008) and Sandy (2012), and investigated the effect these tropical storms would have on bottom-supported offshore wind turbines that were hypothetically in or close to their path as they made landfall. For realistic turbine loads assessment, it is important that the coupled influences of the changing wind, wave, and current fields are simulated throughout the evolution of the hurricanes. We employed a coupled model--specifically, the University of Miami Coupled Model (UMCM)--that integrates atmospheric, wave, and ocean components to produce needed wind, wave, and current data. The wind data are used to generate appropriate vertical wind profiles and full wind velocity fields including turbulence; the current field over the water column is obtained by interpolated discrete output current data; and short-crested irregular second-order waves are simulated using output directional wave spectra from the coupled model. We studied two monopile-supported offshore wind turbines sited in 20 meters of water in the Gulf of Mexico to estimate loads during Hurricane Ike, and a jacket space-frame platform-supported offshore wind turbine sited in 50 meters of water in the mid-Atlantic region to estimate loads during Hurricane Sandy. In this report we discuss in detail how the simulated hurricane wind, wave, and current output data are used in turbine loads studies. In addition, important characteristics of the external conditions are studied, including the relative importance of swell versus wind seas, aerodynamic versus hydrodynamic forces, current velocity effects, yaw control options for the turbine, hydrodynamic drag versus inertia forces

Apparatus and method for using radar to evaluate wind flow fields for wind energy applications

Science.gov (United States)

Schroeder, John; Hirth, Brian; Guynes, Jerry

2017-02-21

The present invention provides an apparatus and method for obtaining data to determine one or more characteristics of a wind flow field using one or more radars. Data is collected from the one or more radars, and analyzed to determine the one or more characteristics of the wind flow field. The one or more radars are positioned to have a portion of the wind flow field within a scanning sector of the one or more radars.

Pre-feasibility analysis of wind energy for Inuvialuit region in Northwest Territories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chauhan, B.; Weis, T.; Pinard, J.P.

2003-03-01

A study examining opportunities and barriers for wind energy development in 4 communities in the Northwest Territories was presented. A review of previous studies examining the feasibility of wind energy in this region was also provided, as well as technical and socio-economic analyses on the displacement of diesel fuels by wind energy. Details of site visits and public meetings to discuss energy concerns were included. Four key locations for installing wind monitoring stations were determined. Interconnection issues and opportunities for wind energy into the local power grids were discussed. Geographic features of the various communities, as well as energy consumption details and wind climates were described. It was noted that there are special considerations for wind turbines in the North, and issues concerning icing and anti-icing technologies were examined. It was suggested that medium-scale wind turbines were the most appropriate size for the Inuvialuit region, due to low costs and ease of installation and redundancy. RETScreen software was used to develop an economic overview of the opportunities for wind energy systems in the 4 communities. Historical wind speed data collected at airports by Environment Canada was used in this analysis. Low and high penetration systems were evaluated. Results of the analysis indicated that wind generated electricity does not appear to be economically viable when compared solely to the displaced cost of diesel fuel. However, environmental factors make it a viable technology. It was concluded that there is potential for wind energy developments in the region, provided that sites are carefully selected. Cost estimates for the proposed wind-monitoring program were also included. 13 tabs., 15 figs

Sneaking of the Solar Wind Ions Into the Lunar Anti-subsolar Region Revealed by SELENE (Kaguya)

Science.gov (United States)

Nishino, M. N.; Fujimoto, M.; Saito, Y.; Shoichiro, Y.; Asamura, K.; Tanaka, T.; Tsunakawa, H.; Shibuya, H.; Matsushima, M.; Shimizu, H.; Takahashi, F.; Maezawa, K.; Terasawa, T.

2008-12-01

The moon spends more than 80 percent of its life staying in the solar wind (SW), where a quasi-vacuum region called the lunar wake is formed on the night side. The SW electrons with higher energy can come to the lunar night-side surface, while it has been thought that the SW ions are unlikely to approach the low altitude region on the night side because their thermal speed is much lower than the SW bulk speed. Here we show detection of SW ions sneaking into the anti-subsolar region at ~100 km altitude, using recent comprehensive measurement by a Japanese lunar orbiter SELENE (Kaguya). The sneaking of SW ions into the deepest lunar wake was accompanied by an enhancement of counter-streaming electrons along the SW magnetic field. A part of the ions detected in the anti-subsolar region came from the lunar surface, which means that the ions of solar wind origin reflected at the night-side surface. One possibility is that electron- rich wake environment strengthened the bipolar electric field at the wake boundary to let solar-wind ions approach the lunar night side, and the other scenario is that enhancement of ions in the wake let ambient electrons to come in. The sneaking mechanism of the solar wind ions in terms of plasma and electromagnetic environment around/inside the lunar wake will be discussed.

Three-dimensional structure of the coronal magnetic field and the solar wind speed distribution projected on the photosphere in 1974

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hakamada, K.

1987-01-01

Since the solar wind and coronal holes were relatively steady in 1974, the average distribution of the solar wind speed on the source surface and that of the line-of-sight component of the photospheric magnetic fields (B 1 ) can be constructed, with fair accuracy, by the superposed epoch analysis. The three-dimensional structure of the coronal magnetic fields is then computed from this average map of B 1 based on the potential model. The average distribution of the solar wind speed on the source surface, obtained from interplanetary scintillation observations, is then projected onto the photosphere along the open field lines in the corona. The high-speed regions thus projected are compared with the He I (1083 nm) coronal holes and are found to have a similar geometry. The results are also suggestive that the solar wind does not blow out uniformly from the vicinity of a coronal hole and that the speed is higher at the east side in that region than at the west side. The slower speed regions on the source surface have a sinusoidal structure in heliographic latitude-longitude coordinates and are similar to the brightness distribution of the K corona and the structure of closed field line regions projected onto the photosphere. copyrightAmerican Geophysical Union 1987

Characterization of wind velocities in the wake of a full scale wind turbine using three ground-based synchronized WindScanners

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yazicioglu, Hasan; Angelou, Nikolas; Mikkelsen, Torben Krogh

2016-01-01

The wind energy community is in need of detailed full-field measurements in the wake of wind turbines. Here, three dimensional(3D) wind vector field measurements obtained in the near-wake region behind a full-scale test turbine are presented. Specifically, the wake of a NEG Nordtank turbine...

U.S. Department of Energy Regional Resource Centers Report: State of the Wind Industry in the Regions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baranowski, Ruth [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United St; Oteri, Frank [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United St; Baring-Gould, Ian [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United St; Tegen, Suzanne [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United St

2016-03-01

The wind industry and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are addressing technical challenges to increasing wind energy's contribution to the national grid (such as reducing turbine costs and increasing energy production and reliability), and they recognize that public acceptance issues can be challenges for wind energy deployment. Wind project development decisions are best made using unbiased information about the benefits and impacts of wind energy. In 2014, DOE established six wind Regional Resource Centers (RRCs) to provide information about wind energy, focusing on regional qualities. This document summarizes the status and drivers for U.S. wind energy development on regional and state levels. It is intended to be a companion to DOE's 2014 Distributed Wind Market Report, 2014 Wind Technologies Market Report, and 2014 Offshore Wind Market and Economic Analysis that provide assessments of the national wind markets for each of these technologies.

Offshore Wind Jobs and Economic Development Impact: Four Regional Scenarios (Presentation)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tegen, S.

2014-11-01

NREL's Jobs and Economic Development Impact (JEDI) Model for Offshore Wind, is a computer tool for studying the economic impacts of fixed-bottom offshore wind projects in the United States. This presentation provides the results of an analysis of four offshore wind development scenarios in the Southeast Atlantic, Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic, and Gulf of Mexico regions.

The regional ground-based wind energy scheme of Pays-de-la-Loire: project, Assessment of the consultation on the regional wind energy project, final version, Prefect decree bearing approval of the regional ground-based wind energy scheme of Pays-de-la-Loire

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2012-08-01

This document first presents the regional wind energy scheme (SRE) as a framework for ground-based wind energy development, and as the wind energy component of the regional climate air energy scheme (SRCAE), briefly presents the elaboration approach, and indicates the legal scope of this scheme. The next part outlines the high rate development of wind energy in the Pays-de-la-Loire region. The third part reports the identification, analysis and assessment of areas of interest for the development of wind energy. Finally, the objective of this development by 2020 is estimated

Solar Wind 0.1-1 keV Electrons in the Corotating Interaction Regions

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, L.; Tao, J.; Li, G.; Wimmer-Schweingruber, R. F.; Jian, L. K.; He, J.; Tu, C.; Tian, H.; Bale, S. D.

2017-12-01

Here we present a statistical study of the 0.1-1 keV suprathermal electrons in the undisturbed and compressed slow/fast solar wind, for the 71 corotating interaction regions (CIRs) with good measurements from the WIND 3DP and MFI instruments from 1995 to 1997. For each of these CIRs, we separate the strahl and halo electrons based on their different behaviors in pitch angle distributions in the undisturbed and compressed solar wind. We fit both the strahl and halo energy spectra to a kappa function with an index κ index and effective temperature Teff, and calculate the pitch-angle width at half-maximum (PAHM) of the strahl population. We also integrate the electron measurements between 0.1 and 1.0 keV to obtain the number density n and average energy Eavg for the strahl and halo populations. We find that for both the strahl and halo populations within and around these CIRs, the fitted κ index strongly correlates with Teff, similar to the quiet-time solar wind (Tao et al., ApJ, 2016). The number density of both the strahl and halo shows a strong positive correlation with the electron core temperature. The strahl number density ns is correlated with the magnitude of interplanetary magnetic field, and the strahl PAHM width is anti-correlated with the solar wind speed. These results suggest that the origin of strahl electrons from the solar corona is likely related to the electron core temperature and magnetic field strength, while the production of halo electrons in the interplanetary medium could depend on the solar wind velocity.

Effects of Long-term Conservation Tillage on Soil Nutrients in Sloping Fields in Regions Characterized by Water and Wind Erosion

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Chunjian; Cao, Xue; Yuan, Shuai; Wang, Weiyu; Feng, Yongzhong; Qiao, Bo

2015-12-01

Conservation tillage is commonly used in regions affected by water and wind erosion. To understand the effects of conservation tillage on soil nutrients and yield, a long-term experiment was set up in a region affected by water and wind erosion on the Loess Plateau. The treatments used were traditional tillage (CK), no tillage (NT), straw mulching (SM), plastic-film mulching (PM), ridging and plastic-film mulching (RPM) and intercropping (In). Our results demonstrate that the available nutrients in soils subjected to non-traditional tillage treatments decreased during the first several years and then remained stable over the last several years of the experiment. The soil organic matter and total nitrogen content increased gradually over 6 years in all treatments except CK. The nutrient content of soils subjected to conservative tillage methods, such as NT and SM, were significantly higher than those in soils under the CK treatment. Straw mulching and film mulching effectively reduced an observed decrease in soybean yield. Over the final 6 years of the experiment, soybean yields followed the trend RPM > PM > SM > NT > CK > In. This trend has implications for controlling soil erosion and preventing non-point source pollution in sloping fields by sacrificing some food production.

2016 State of Wind Development in the United States by Region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baranowski, Ruth [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Oteri, Frank [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Baring-Gould, Ian [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Tegen, Suzanne [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2017-04-19

Significant expansion of wind energy development will be required to achieve the scenarios outlined in the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE)'s Wind Vision: 20% wind energy by 2030 and 35% wind energy by 2050. Wind energy currently provides nearly 5% of the nation's electricity but has the potential to provide much more. The wind industry and the DOE's Wind Energy Technologies Office are addressing technical wind energy challenges, such as reducing turbine costs and increasing energy production and reliability. The Office recognizes that public acceptance of wind energy can be challenging, depending on the proximity of proposed wind farms to local populations. Informed decision makers and communities equipped with unbiased information about the benefits and impacts of wind energy development are better prepared to navigate the sometimes contentious development process. In 2014, DOE established six Regional Resource Centers (RRCs) across the United States to communicate unbiased, credible information about wind energy to stakeholders through regional networks. The RRCs provide ready access to this information to familiarize the public with wind energy; raise awareness about potential benefits and issues; and disseminate data on siting considerations such as turbine sound and wildlife habitat protection. This document summarizes the status and drivers for U.S. wind energy development during 2016. RRC leaders provided a report of wind energy development in their regions, which was combined with findings from National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers to provide an account of the state of the regions, as well as updates on developments in individual states. NREL researchers and state partners added updates for all states that are not directly supported by an RRC. Accounts for each region include updates on renewable portfolio standards, the Clean Power Plan, workforce development, manufacturing and economic development, and individual

Time variations of oxygen emission lines and solar wind dynamic parameters in low latitude region

Science.gov (United States)

Jamlongkul, P.; Wannawichian, S.; Mkrtichian, D.; Sawangwit, U.; A-thano, N.

2017-09-01

Aurora phenomenon is an effect of collision between precipitating particles with gyromotion along Earth’s magnetic field and Earth’s ionospheric atoms or molecules. The particles’ precipitation occurs normally around polar regions. However, some auroral particles can reach lower latitude regions when they are highly energetic. A clear emission from Earth’s aurora is mostly from atomic oxygen. Moreover, the sun’s activities can influence the occurrence of the aurora as well. This work studies time variations of oxygen emission lines and solar wind parameters, simultaneously. The emission’s spectral lines were observed by Medium Resolution Echelle Spectrograph (MRES) along with 2.4 meters diameter telescope at Thai National Observatory, Intanon Mountain, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Oxygen (OI) emission lines were calibrated by Dech-Fits spectra processing program and Dech95 2D image processing program. The correlations between oxygen emission lines and solar wind dynamics will be analyzed. This result could be an evidence of the aurora in low latitude region.

Statistical downscaling of historical monthly mean winds over a coastal region of complex terrain. I. Predicting wind speed

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Curry, Charles L. [Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, Environment Canada, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC (Canada); School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC (Canada); Kamp, Derek van der [School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC (Canada); Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC (Canada); Monahan, Adam H. [School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC (Canada)

2012-04-15

Surface wind speed is a key climatic variable of interest in many applications, including assessments of storm-related infrastructure damage and feasibility studies of wind power generation. In this work and a companion paper (van der Kamp et al. 2011), the relationship between local surface wind and large-scale climate variables was studied using multiple regression analysis. The analysis was performed using monthly mean station data from British Columbia, Canada and large-scale climate variables (predictors) from the NCEP-2 reanalysis over the period 1979-2006. Two regression-based methodologies were compared. The first relates the annual cycle of station wind speed to that of the large-scale predictors at the closest grid box to the station. It is shown that the relatively high correlation coefficients obtained with this method are attributable to the dominant influence of region-wide seasonality, and thus contain minimal information about local wind behaviour at the stations. The second method uses interannually varying data for individual months, aggregated into seasons, and is demonstrated to contain intrinsically local information about the surface winds. The dependence of local wind speed upon large-scale predictors over a much larger region surrounding the station was also explored, resulting in 2D maps of spatial correlations. The cross-validated explained variance using the interannual method was highest in autumn and winter, ranging from 30 to 70% at about a dozen stations in the region. Reasons for the limited predictive skill of the regressions and directions for future progress are reviewed. (orig.)

Small Coronal Holes Near Active Regions as Sources of Slow Solar Wind

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Y.-M., E-mail: yi.wang@nrl.navy.mil [Space Science Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375 (United States)

2017-06-01

We discuss the nature of the small areas of rapidly diverging, open magnetic flux that form in the strong unipolar fields at the peripheries of active regions (ARs), according to coronal extrapolations of photospheric field measurements. Because such regions usually have dark counterparts in extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) images, we refer to them as coronal holes, even when they appear as narrow lanes or contain sunspots. Revisiting previously identified “AR sources” of slow solar wind from 1998 and 1999, we find that they are all associated with EUV coronal holes; the absence of well-defined He i 1083.0 nm counterparts to some of these holes is attributed to the large flux of photoionizing radiation from neighboring AR loops. Examining a number of AR-associated EUV holes during the 2014 activity maximum, we confirm that they are characterized by wind speeds of ∼300–450 km s{sup −1}, O{sup 7+}/O{sup 6+} ratios of ∼0.05–0.4, and footpoint field strengths typically of order 30 G. The close spacing between ARs at sunspot maximum limits the widths of unipolar regions and their embedded holes, while the continual emergence of new flux leads to rapid changes in the hole boundaries. Because of the highly nonradial nature of AR fields, the smaller EUV holes are often masked by the overlying canopy of loops, and may be more visible toward one solar limb than at central meridian. As sunspot activity declines, the AR remnants merge to form much larger, weaker, and longer-lived unipolar regions, which harbor the “classical” coronal holes that produce recurrent high-speed streams.

Extreme winds over Europe in the ENSEMBLES regional climate models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. D. Outten

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Extreme winds cause vast amounts of damage every year and represent a major concern for numerous industries including construction, afforestation, wind energy and many others. Under a changing climate, the intensity and frequency of extreme events are expected to change, and accurate projections of these changes will be invaluable to decision makers and society as a whole. This work examines four regional climate model downscalings over Europe following the SRES A1B scenario from the "ENSEMBLE-based Predictions of Climate Changes and their Impacts" project (ENSEMBLES. It investigates the projected changes in the 50 yr return wind speeds and the associated uncertainties. This is accomplished by employing the peaks-over-threshold method with the use of the generalised Pareto distribution. The models show that, for much of Europe, the 50 yr return wind is projected to change by less than 2 m s−1, while the uncertainties associated with the statistical estimates are larger than this. In keeping with previous works in this field, the largest source of uncertainty is found to be the inter-model spread, with some locations showing differences in the 50 yr return wind of over 20 m s−1 between two different downscalings.

Near-surface wind variability over the broader Adriatic region: insights from an ensemble of regional climate models

Science.gov (United States)

Belušić, Andreina; Prtenjak, Maja Telišman; Güttler, Ivan; Ban, Nikolina; Leutwyler, David; Schär, Christoph

2018-06-01

Over the past few decades the horizontal resolution of regional climate models (RCMs) has steadily increased, leading to a better representation of small-scale topographic features and more details in simulating dynamical aspects, especially in coastal regions and over complex terrain. Due to its complex terrain, the broader Adriatic region represents a major challenge to state-of-the-art RCMs in simulating local wind systems realistically. The objective of this study is to identify the added value in near-surface wind due to the refined grid spacing of RCMs. For this purpose, we use a multi-model ensemble composed of CORDEX regional climate simulations at 0.11° and 0.44° grid spacing, forced by the ERA-Interim reanalysis, a COSMO convection-parameterizing simulation at 0.11° and a COSMO convection-resolving simulation at 0.02° grid spacing. Surface station observations from this region and satellite QuikSCAT data over the Adriatic Sea have been compared against daily output obtained from the available simulations. Both day-to-day wind and its frequency distribution are examined. The results indicate that the 0.44° RCMs rarely outperform ERA-Interim reanalysis, while the performance of the high-resolution simulations surpasses that of ERA-Interim. We also disclose that refining the grid spacing to a few km is needed to properly capture the small-scale wind systems. Finally, we show that the simulations frequently yield the accurate angle of local wind regimes, such as for the Bora flow, but overestimate the associated wind magnitude. Finally, spectral analysis shows good agreement between measurements and simulations, indicating the correct temporal variability of the wind speed.

Field measurement of wind pressure and wind-induced vibration of large-span spatial cable-truss system under strong wind or typhoon

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ZHANG Zhihong

2013-10-01

Full Text Available In order to ensure wind-resistance safety of large-span pre-stressed flexible system in southeast coast area of China,and to prepare something for revising of current codes of practice or technical standards,the present paper conducts field measurement of wind pressure and wind-induced vibration of a practical and typical large-span spatial cable-truss system-lunar stadium in Yueqing city.Wind loading and wind effects on full-scale structure under strong wind or typhoon in real architectural environment can be obtained directly and effectively.Field measurement is the best way to investigate the wind loading property,wind effects,and wind-structure interactions of large-span flexible system.Measured data will be highly valuable for scientific research and practical design.On the other hand,it also provides the basis of wind-resistance safety design of this kind of tension structures.If any creative development,it would dramatically improve the research level of large-span pre-stressed flexible system in our country.

An optimization of a GPU-based parallel wind field module

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pinheiro, André L.S.; Shirru, Roberto

2017-01-01

Atmospheric radionuclide dispersion systems (ARDS) are important tools to predict the impact of radioactive releases from Nuclear Power Plants and guide people evacuation from affected areas. Four modules comprise ARDS: Source Term, Wind Field, Plume Dispersion and Doses Calculations. The slowest is the Wind Field Module that was previously parallelized using the CUDA C language. The statement purpose of this work is to show the speedup gain with the optimization of the already parallel code of the GPU-based Wind Field module, based in WEST model (Extrapolated from Stability and Terrain). Due to the parallelization done in the wind field module, it was observed that some CUDA processors became idle, thus contributing to a reduction in speedup. It was proposed in this work a way of allocating these idle CUDA processors in order to increase the speedup. An acceleration of about 4 times can be seen in the comparative case study between the regular CUDA code and the optimized CUDA code. These results are quite motivating and point out that even after a parallelization of code, a parallel code optimization should be taken into account. (author)

An optimization of a GPU-based parallel wind field module

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pinheiro, André L.S.; Shirru, Roberto [Coordenacao de Pos-Graduacao e Pesquisa de Engenharia (PEN/COPPE/UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Programa de Engenharia Nuclear; Pereira, Cláudio M.N.A., E-mail: apinheiro99@gmail.com, E-mail: schirru@lmp.ufrj.br, E-mail: cmnap@ien.gov.br [Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear (IEN/CNEN-RJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

2017-07-01

Atmospheric radionuclide dispersion systems (ARDS) are important tools to predict the impact of radioactive releases from Nuclear Power Plants and guide people evacuation from affected areas. Four modules comprise ARDS: Source Term, Wind Field, Plume Dispersion and Doses Calculations. The slowest is the Wind Field Module that was previously parallelized using the CUDA C language. The statement purpose of this work is to show the speedup gain with the optimization of the already parallel code of the GPU-based Wind Field module, based in WEST model (Extrapolated from Stability and Terrain). Due to the parallelization done in the wind field module, it was observed that some CUDA processors became idle, thus contributing to a reduction in speedup. It was proposed in this work a way of allocating these idle CUDA processors in order to increase the speedup. An acceleration of about 4 times can be seen in the comparative case study between the regular CUDA code and the optimized CUDA code. These results are quite motivating and point out that even after a parallelization of code, a parallel code optimization should be taken into account. (author)

Relation of zonal plasma drift and wind in the equatorial F region as derived from CHAMP observations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Park

2013-06-01

Full Text Available In this paper we estimate zonal plasma drift in the equatorial ionospheric F region without counting on ion drift meters. From June 2001 to June 2004 zonal plasma drift velocity is estimated from electron, neutral, and magnetic field observations of Challenging Mini-satellite Payload (CHAMP in the 09:00–20:00 LT sector. The estimated velocities are validated against ion drift measurements by the Republic of China Satellite-1/Ionospheric Plasma and Electrodynamics Instrument (ROCSAT-1/IPEI during the same period. The correlation between the CHAMP (altitude ~ 400 km estimates and ROCSAT-1 (altitude ~ 600 km observations is reasonably high (R ≈ 0.8. The slope of the linear regression is close to unity. However, the maximum westward drift and the westward-to-eastward reversal occur earlier for CHAMP estimates than for ROCSAT-1 measurements. In the equatorial F region both zonal wind and plasma drift have the same direction. Both generate vertical currents but with opposite signs. The wind effect (F region wind dynamo is generally larger in magnitude than the plasma drift effect (Pedersen current generated by vertical E field, thus determining the direction of the F region vertical current.

Representation of spatial and temporal variability of daily wind speed and of intense wind events over the Mediterranean Sea using dynamical downscaling: impact of the regional climate model configuration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Herrmann

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Atmospheric datasets coming from long term reanalyzes of low spatial resolution are used for different purposes. Wind over the sea is, for example, a major ingredient of oceanic simulations. However, the shortcomings of those datasets prevent them from being used without an adequate corrective preliminary treatment. Using a regional climate model (RCM to perform a dynamical downscaling of those large scale reanalyzes is one of the methods used in order to produce fields that realistically reproduce atmospheric chronology and where those shortcomings are corrected. Here we assess the influence of the configuration of the RCM used in this framework on the representation of wind speed spatial and temporal variability and intense wind events on a daily timescale. Our RCM is ALADIN-Climate, the reanalysis is ERA-40, and the studied area is the Mediterranean Sea.

First, the dynamical downscaling significantly reduces the underestimation of daily wind speed, in average by 9 % over the whole Mediterranean. This underestimation has been corrected both globally and locally, and for the whole wind speed spectrum. The correction is the strongest for periods and regions of strong winds. The representation of spatial variability has also been significantly improved. On the other hand, the temporal correlation between the downscaled field and the observations decreases all the more that one moves eastwards, i.e. further from the atmospheric flux entry. Nonetheless, it remains ~0.7, the downscaled dataset reproduces therefore satisfactorily the real chronology.

Second, the influence of the choice of the RCM configuration has an influence one order of magnitude smaller than the improvement induced by the initial downscaling. The use of spectral nudging or of a smaller domain helps to improve the realism of the temporal chronology. Increasing the resolution very locally (both spatially and temporally improves the representation of spatial

Do regional weather models contribute to better wind power forecasts? A few Norwegian case studies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bremnes, John Bjørnar; Giebel, Gregor

2017-01-01

resolution of this grid determines how accurate meteorological processes can be modeled and thereby also limits forecast quality. In this study, two global and four regional operational NWP models with spatial horizontal resolutions ranging from 1 to 32 km were applied to make wind power forecasts up to 66...

Field measurements in the wake of a model wind turbine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pol, Suhas; Taylor, Amelia; Doostalab, Ali; Novoa, Santiago; Castillo, Luciano; Bilbao, Argenis; Sheng, Jian; Giesselmann, Michael; Westergaard, Carsten; Hussain, Fazle; Ren, Beibei; Glauser, Mark

2014-01-01

As a first step to study the dynamics of a wind farm' we experimentally explored the flow field behind a single wind turbine of diameter 1.17 m at a hub height of 6.25 m. A 10 m tower upstream of the wind farm characterizes the atmospheric conditions and its influence on the wake evolution. A vertical rake of sonic anemometers is clustered around the hub height on a second tower' 6D downstream of the turbine. We present preliminary observations from a 1- hour block of data recorded in near-neutral atmospheric conditions. The ratio of the standard deviation of power to the inflow velocity is greater than three' revealing adverse effects of inflow turbulence on the power and load fluctuations. Furthermore' the wake defect and Reynolds stress and its gradient are pronounced at 6D. The flux of energy due to Reynolds stresses is similar to that reported in wind tunnel studies. The swirl and mixing produces a constant temperature wake which results in a density jump across the wake interface. Further field measurements will explore the dynamics of a model wind farm' including the effects of atmospheric variability

Study on offshore wind farm wakes based on Envisat ASAR, Radarsat-2 and Sentinel-1

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hasager, Charlotte Bay; Badger, Merete; Badger, Jake

energy production in clustered wind farms. Envisat ASAR, Radarsat-2 and Sentinel-1 are used in the study covering wind farms in the North Sea and Kattegat Strait. Three types of analysis are performed. The first is a case based on a Radarsat-2 Scan-SAR wide VV scene (30th April 2013 at 17:41 UTC...... is rotation of the data such that all scenes are aligned with inflow and downstream (wake region) based on the wind direction in the wind field maps. The rotation is done at 1 degree intervals. The data from rotated circles (not geo-collocated) are normalized with the winds at the side-lobes. Side......-lobes are regions expected to be undisturbed by the wind farm wake. The key result of the analysis is the significant wind wake deficit at the inner circle, decreasing at outer circles, as expected. The SAR-based results strongly support the wake model results based on PARK and WRF (Hasager et al. 2015b). The third...

Exploring the nearshore marine wind profile from field measurements and numerical hindcast

Science.gov (United States)

del Jesus, F.; Menendez, M.; Guanche, R.; Losada, I.

2012-12-01

Wind power is the predominant offshore renewable energy resource. In the last years, offshore wind farms have become a technically feasible source of electrical power. The economic feasibility of offshore wind farms depends on the quality of the offshore wind conditions compared to that of onshore sites. Installation and maintenance costs must be balanced with more hours and a higher quality of the available resources. European offshore wind development has revealed that the optimum offshore sites are those in which the distance from the coast is limited with high available resource. Due to the growth in the height of the turbines and the complexity of the coast, with interactions between inland wind/coastal orography and ocean winds, there is a need for field measurements and validation of numerical models to understand the marine wind profile near the coast. Moreover, recent studies have pointed out that the logarithmic law describing the vertical wind profile presents limitations. The aim of this work is to characterize the nearshore vertical wind profile in the medium atmosphere boundary layer. Instrumental observations analyzed in this work come from the Idermar project (www.Idermar.es). Three floating masts deployed at different locations on the Cantabrian coast provide wind measurements from a height of 20 to 90 meters. Wind speed and direction are measured as well as several meteorological variables at different heights of the profile. The shortest wind time series has over one year of data. A 20 year high-resolution atmospheric hindcast, using the WRF-ARW model and focusing on hourly offshore wind fields, is also analyzed. Two datasets have been evaluated: a European reanalysis with a ~15 Km spatial resolution, and a hybrid downscaling of wind fields with a spatial resolution of one nautical mile over the northern coast of Spain.. These numerical hindcasts have been validated based on field measurement data. Several parameterizations of the vertical wind

Offshore wind power resource assessment using Oceansat-2 scatterometer data at a regional scale

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gadad, Sanjeev; Deka, Paresh Chandra

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Accuracy assessment of Oceansat-2 scatterometer (OSCAT) winds by the in situ real-time ship observations for study area. • OSCAT data for two years (2011 and 2012) were used to evaluate the offshore wind power potential for the Karnataka state. • Wind speed and power atlases are developed to study the spatial distribution over study area. • 9,091 MW potential was estimated using 5 MW wind turbine in the Monopile region. • Recommend development of 10% of the estimated potential, 116% of energy deficit for 2012–13 can be met. - Abstract: In the offshore region the scarcity of in situ wind data in space proves to be a major setback for wind power potential assessments. Satellite data effectively overcomes this setback by providing continuous and total spatial coverage. The study intends to assess the offshore wind power resource of the Karnataka state, which is located on the west coast of India. Oceansat-2 scatterometer (OSCAT) wind data and GIS based methodology were adopted in the study. The OSCAT data accuracy was assessed using INCOIS Realtime All Weather Station (IRAWS) data. Wind speed maps at 10 m, 90 m and wind power density maps using OSCAT data were developed to understand the spatial distribution of winds over the study area. Bathymetric map was developed based on the available foundation types and demarking various exclusion zones to help in minimizing conflicts. The wind power generation capacity estimation performed using REpower 5 MW turbine, based on the water depth classes was found to be 9,091 MW in Monopile (0–35 m), 11,709 MW in Jacket (35–50 m), 23,689 MW in Advanced Jacket (50–100 m) and 117,681 MW in Floating (100–1000 m) foundation technology. In Indian scenario major thrust for wind farm development in Monopile region is required. Therefore as first phase of development, if 10% of the estimated potential in the region can be developed then, 116% of energy deficit for FY 2011–12 could be met. Also, up to 79

Evolution of the solar wind acceleration region during 1990-1994

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tokumaru, Munetoshi; Kondo, Tetsuro; Takaba, Hiroshi; Mori, Hirotaka; Tanaka, Takashi

1996-01-01

The single-station measurements of interplanetary scintillation (IPS) at 2GHz and 8GHz using the Kashima radio telescope are used to study the distribution of the solar wind velocity and density fluctuations near the sun. Wind velocities derived from our IPS data with the IPS co-spectrum method show a radial increase in the distance range between 10 and 30 Rs (solar radii). From the scintillation index analysis, it is found that the radial fall of density fluctuations in the solar wind is described by the power-law function. A series of Kashima IPS observations reveals that a pronounced change in velocity and turbulence level occurs at the polar region of the sun during 1990-1994. That is, the high-speed wind and the reduced-turbulence region develop there as the solar activity declines. This fact is consistent with the long-term evolution of the coronal magnetic structure inferred from He1083nm observations

Wind energy resource atlas. Volume 8. The southern Rocky Mountain region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Andersen, S.R.; Freeman, D.L.; Hadley, D.L.; Elliott, D.L.; Barchet, W.R.; George, R.L.

1981-03-01

The Southern Rocky Mountain atlas assimilates five collections of wind resource data: one for the region and one for each of the four states that compose the Southern Rocky Mountain region (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah). At the state level, features of the climate, topography and wind resource are discussed in greater detail than is provided in the regional discussion, and the data locations on which the assessment is based are mapped. Variations, over several time scales, in the wind resource at selected stations in each state are shown on graphs of monthly average and interannual wind speed and power, and hourly average wind speed for each season. Other graphs present speed, direction, and duration frequencies of the wind at these locations.

Wind Generation Feasibility Study in Bethel, AK

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tom Humphrey, YKHC; Lance Kincaid, EMCOR Energy & Technologies

2004-07-31

This report studies the wind resources in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation (YKHC) region, located in southwestern Alaska, and the applicability of wind generation technologies to YKHC facilities.

Climate information for the wind energy industry in the Mediterranean Region

Science.gov (United States)

Calmanti, Sandro; Davis, Melanie; Schmidt, Peter; Dell'Aquila, Alessandro

2013-04-01

According to the World Wind Energy Association the total wind generation capacity worldwide has come close to cover 3% of the world's electricity demand in 2011. Thanks to the enormous resource potential and the relatively low costs of construction and maintenance of wind power plants, the wind energy sector will remain one of the most attractive renewable energy investment options. Studies reveal that climate variability and change pose a new challenge to the entire renewable energy sector, and in particular for wind energy. Stakeholders in the wind energy sector mainly use, if available, site-specific historical climate information to assess wind resources at a given project site. So far, this is the only source of information that investors (e.g., banks) are keen to accept for decisions concerning the financing of wind energy projects. However, one possible wind energy risk at the seasonal scale is the volatility of earnings from year to year investment. The most significant risk is therefore that not enough units of energy (or megawatt hours) can be generated from the project to capture energy sales to pay down debt in any given quarter or year. On the longer time scale the risk is that a project's energy yields fall short of their estimated levels, resulting in revenues that consistently come in below their projection, over the life of the project. The nature of the risk exposure determines considerable interest in wind scenarios, as a potential component of both the planning and operational phase of a renewable energy project. Fundamentally, by using climate projections, the assumption of stationary wind regimes can be compared to other scenarios where large scale changes in atmospheric circulation patterns may affect local wind regimes. In the framework of CLIM-RUN EU FP7 project, climate experts are exploring the potential of seasonal to decadal climate forecast techniques (time-frame 2012-2040) and regional climate scenarios (time horizon 2040+) over the

E region neutral winds in the postmidnight diffuse aurora during the atmospheric response in aurora 1 rocket campaign

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brinkman, D.G.; Walterscheid, R.L.; Lyons, L.R.

1995-01-01

Measured E region neutral winds from the Atmospheric Response in Aurora (ARIA 1) rocket campaign are compared with winds predicted by a high-resolution nonhydrostatic dynamical thermosphere model. The ARIA 1 rockets were launched into the postmidnight diffuse aurora during the recovery phase of a substorm. Simulations have shown that electrodynamical coupling between the auroral ionosphere and the thermosphere was expected to be strong during active diffuse auroral conditions. This is the first time that simulations using the time history of detailed specifications of the magnitude and latitudinal variation of the auroral forcing based on measurements have been compared to simultaneous wind measurements. Model inputs included electron densities derived from ground-based airglow measurements, precipitating electron fluxes measured by the rocket, electron densities measured on the rocket, electric fields derived from magnetometer and satellite ion drift measurements, and large-scale background winds from a thermospheric general circulation model. Our model predicted a strong jet of eastward winds at E region heights. A comparison between model predicted and observed winds showed modest agreement. Above 135 km the model predicted zonal winds with the correct sense, the correct profile shape, and the correct altitude of the peak wind. However, it overpredicted the magnitude of the eastward winds by more than a factor or 2. For the meridional winds the model predicted the general sense of the winds but was unable to predict the structure or strength of the winds seen in the observations. Uncertainties in the magnitude and latitudinal structure of the electric field and in the magnitude of the background winds are the most likely sources of error contributing to the differences between model and observed winds. Between 110 and 135 km the agreement between the model and observations was poor because of a large unmodeled jetlike feature in the observed winds

Numerical simulation of the aerodynamic field in complex terrain wind farm based on actuator disk model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Xu, Chang; Li, Chen Qi; Han, Xing Xing

2015-01-01

Study on the aerodynamic field in complex terrain is significant to wind farm micro-sitting and wind power prediction. This paper modeled the wind turbine through an actuator disk model, and solved the aerodynamic field by CFD to study the influence of meshing, boundary conditions and turbulence ...

Hess Tower field study: sonic measurements at a former building-integrated wind farm site

Science.gov (United States)

Araya, Daniel

2017-11-01

Built in 2010, Hess Tower is a 29-story office building located in the heart of downtown Houston, TX. Unique to the building is a roof structure that was specifically engineered to house ten vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) to partially offset the energy demands of the building. Despite extensive atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) wind tunnel tests to predict the flow conditions on the roof before the building was constructed, the Hess VAWTs were eventually removed after allegedly one of the turbines failed and fell to the ground. This talk presents in-situ sonic anemometry measurements taken on the roof of Hess Tower at the former turbine locations. We compare this wind field characterization to the ABL wind tunnel data to draw conclusions about building-integrated wind farm performance and prediction capability.

Wind field reconstruction from nacelle-mounted lidar short-range measurements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Borraccino

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Profiling nacelle lidars probe the wind at several heights and several distances upstream of the rotor. The development of such lidar systems is relatively recent, and it is still unclear how to condense the lidar raw measurements into useful wind field characteristics such as speed, direction, vertical and longitudinal gradients (wind shear. In this paper, we demonstrate an innovative method to estimate wind field characteristics using nacelle lidar measurements taken within the induction zone. Model-fitting wind field reconstruction techniques are applied to nacelle lidar measurements taken at multiple distances close to the rotor, where a wind model is combined with a simple induction model. The method allows robust determination of free-stream wind characteristics. The method was applied to experimental data obtained with two different types of nacelle lidar (five-beam Demonstrator and ZephIR Dual Mode. The reconstructed wind speed was within 0.5 % of the wind speed measured with a mast-top-mounted cup anemometer at 2.5 rotor diameters upstream of the turbine. The technique described in this paper overcomes measurement range limitations of the currently available nacelle lidar technology.

Long-Range WindScanner System

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vasiljevic, Nikola; Lea, Guillaume; Courtney, Michael

2016-01-01

The technical aspects of a multi-Doppler LiDAR instrument, the long-range WindScanner system, are presented accompanied by an overview of the results from several field campaigns. The long-range WindScanner system consists of three spatially-separated, scanning coherent Doppler LiDARs and a remote......-rangeWindScanner system measures the wind field by emitting and directing three laser beams to intersect, and then scanning the beam intersection over a region of interest. The long-range WindScanner system was developed to tackle the need for high-quality observations of wind fields on scales of modern wind turbine...

Applying micro scales of horizontal axis wind turbines for operation in low wind speed regions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pourrajabian, Abolfazl; Ebrahimi, Reza; Mirzaei, Masoud

2014-01-01

Highlights: • Three micro-turbines with output power less than 1 kW were designed for operation in low wind speed regions. • In addition to the output power, starting time was considered as a key parameter during the design. • The effects of generator resistive torque and number of blades on the performance of the turbines were investigated. - Abstract: Utilizing the micro scales of wind turbines could noticeably supply the demand for the electricity in low wind speed regions. Aerodynamic design and optimization of the blade, as a main part of a wind turbine, were addressed in the study. Three micro scales of horizontal axis wind turbines with output power of 0.5, 0.75 and 1 kW were considered and the geometric optimization of the blades in terms of the two involved parameters, chord and twist, was undertaken. In order to improve the performance of the turbines at low wind speeds, starting time was included in an objective function in addition to the output power – the main and desirable goal of the wind turbine blade design. A purpose-built genetic algorithm was employed to maximize both the output power and the starting performance which were calculated by the blade-element momentum theory. The results emphasize that the larger values of the chord and twist at the root part of the blades are indispensable for the better performance when the wind speed is low. However, the noticeable value of the generator resistive torque could largely delay the starting of the micro-turbines especially for the considered smaller size, 0.5 kW, where the starting aerodynamic torque could not overcome the generator resistive torque. For that size, an increase in the number of blades improved both the starting performance and also output power

Bidirectional ionic wind in nonpremixed counterflow flames with DC electric fields

KAUST Repository

Park, Daegeun

2016-05-05

Under an electric field, ions in the reaction zone of a flame generate a bulk flow motion called ionic wind. Because the majority of ions are positive, ionic wind is commonly considered to be unidirectional toward the cathode. A more thorough understanding of the effects of electric fields on flames could be obtained by clarifying the role of minor negative ions in the ionic wind. Here, we report on the effects of direct current on nonpremixed counterflow flames by visualizing the ionic wind. We found that the original flow field separates near the flame when it locates at a flow stagnation plane, resulting in a double-stagnant flow configuration. This evidences a bidirectional ionic wind blowing from the flame to both the cathode and the anode due to the positive and the negative ions, respectively. Meanwhile, an electric body force pulls the flame toward the cathode. Thus, the electric field affects the strain rate and the axial location of the stoichiometry, which are important for characterizing nonpremixed counterflow flames. In addition, measurement of the electric current density roughly showed a nearly saturated current when these flames restabilized under relatively high voltage. Detailed explanations of flame behavior, electric currents, and flow characteristics of various fuels are discussed in this study.

WIND observations of coherent electrostatic waves in the solar wind

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Mangeney

1999-03-01

Full Text Available The time domain sampler (TDS experiment on WIND measures electric and magnetic wave forms with a sampling rate which reaches 120 000 points per second. We analyse here observations made in the solar wind near the Lagrange point L1. In the range of frequencies above the proton plasma frequency fpi and smaller than or of the order of the electron plasma frequency fpe, TDS observed three kinds of electrostatic (e.s. waves: coherent wave packets of Langmuir waves with frequencies f ~ fpe, coherent wave packets with frequencies in the ion acoustic range fpi < f < fpe, and more or less isolated non-sinusoidal spikes lasting less than 1 ms. We confirm that the observed frequency of the low frequency (LF ion acoustic wave packets is dominated by the Doppler effect: the wavelengths are short, 10 to 50 electron Debye lengths λD. The electric field in the isolated electrostatic structures (IES and in the LF wave packets is more or less aligned with the solar wind magnetic field. Across the IES, which have a spatial width of the order of ~ 25λD, there is a small but finite electric potential drop, implying an average electric field generally directed away from the Sun. The IES wave forms, which have not been previously reported in the solar wind, are similar, although with a smaller amplitude, to the weak double layers observed in the auroral regions, and to the electrostatic solitary waves observed in other regions in the magnetosphere. We have also studied the solar wind conditions which favour the occurrence of the three kinds of waves: all these e.s. waves are observed more or less continuously in the whole solar wind (except in the densest regions where a parasite prevents the TDS observations. The type (wave packet or IES of the observed LF waves is mainly determined by the proton temperature and by the direction of the magnetic field, which themselves depend on the latitude of WIND with respect to the heliospheric current sheet.Key words

Statistical analysis of wind speed using two-parameter Weibull distribution in Alaçatı region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ozay, Can; Celiktas, Melih Soner

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Wind speed & direction data from September 2008 to March 2014 has been analyzed. • Mean wind speed for the whole data set has been found to be 8.11 m/s. • Highest wind speed is observed in July with a monthly mean value of 9.10 m/s. • Wind speed with the most energy has been calculated as 12.77 m/s. • Observed data has been fit to a Weibull distribution and k &c parameters have been calculated as 2.05 and 9.16. - Abstract: Weibull Statistical Distribution is a common method for analyzing wind speed measurements and determining wind energy potential. Weibull probability density function can be used to forecast wind speed, wind density and wind energy potential. In this study a two-parameter Weibull statistical distribution is used to analyze the wind characteristics of Alaçatı region, located in Çeşme, İzmir. The data used in the density function are acquired from a wind measurement station in Alaçatı. Measurements were gathered on three different heights respectively 70, 50 and 30 m between 10 min intervals for five and half years. As a result of this study; wind speed frequency distribution, wind direction trends, mean wind speed, and the shape and the scale (k&c) Weibull parameters have been calculated for the region. Mean wind speed for the entirety of the data set is found to be 8.11 m/s. k&c parameters are found as 2.05 and 9.16 in relative order. Wind direction analysis along with a wind rose graph for the region is also provided with the study. Analysis suggests that higher wind speeds which range from 6–12 m/s are prevalent between the sectors 340–360°. Lower wind speeds, from 3 to 6 m/s occur between sectors 10–29°. Results of this study contribute to the general knowledge about the regions wind energy potential and can be used as a source for investors and academics.

Wind gust models derived from field data

Science.gov (United States)

Gawronski, W.

1995-01-01

Wind data measured during a field experiment were used to verify the analytical model of wind gusts. Good coincidence was observed; the only discrepancy occurred for the azimuth error in the front and back winds, where the simulated errors were smaller than the measured ones. This happened because of the assumption of the spatial coherence of the wind gust model, which generated a symmetric antenna load and, in consequence, a low azimuth servo error. This result indicates a need for upgrading the wind gust model to a spatially incoherent one that will reflect the real gusts in a more accurate manner. In order to design a controller with wind disturbance rejection properties, the wind disturbance should be known at the input to the antenna rate loop model. The second task, therefore, consists of developing a digital filter that simulates the wind gusts at the antenna rate input. This filter matches the spectrum of the measured servo errors. In this scenario, the wind gusts are generated by introducing white noise to the filter input.

Model study of the influence of solar wind parameters on electric currents and fields in middle atmosphere at high latitudes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tonev, P.; Velinov, P.

2012-01-01

The electric currents and fields in the strato/mesosphere and lower ionosphere are a result mainly of tropospheric electrical generators (thunderstorms and electrified clouds) which principally determine their global distributions and magnitudes. There are, however, additional sources, e.g. the solar wind (SW), whose contribution to these currents and fields is realized by SW-magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. This last causes creation of large trans-polar electric potential difference VPC in each polar cap of ∼ 30–140 kV and of horizontal scale ∼ 3000 km which is realized through field-aligned currents (FAC) and is controlled by SW parameters. The potential difference VPC forces formation of closure currents in the dynamo-region. Our study by simulation shows that much smaller currents penetrate into the lower atmospheric regions and influence characteristics of the global atmospheric electrical circuit (GEC). Also, the downward mapping of the horizontal electric fields due to the potential difference VPC leads to creation of very small, but non-negligible vertical electric fields at sea level. They have been demonstrated experimentally as significant (up to few tens of per cent) SW-controlled modifications of the GEC electric characteristics at the ground, at polar latitudes. Our model, based on simulation of Maxwell’s equations in the region 0–160 km under steady-state conditions show that similar but relatively much larger SW-dominated modifications of GEC characteristics take place in the strato/mesosphere and lower ionosphere at polar and high latitudes

Three Dimensional Dynamic Model Based Wind Field Reconstruction from Lidar Data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Raach, Steffen; Schlipf, David; Haizmann, Florian; Cheng, Po Wen

2014-01-01

Using the inflowing horizontal and vertical wind shears for individual pitch controller is a promising method if blade bending measurements are not available. Due to the limited information provided by a lidar system the reconstruction of shears in real-time is a challenging task especially for the horizontal shear in the presence of changing wind direction. The internal model principle has shown to be a promising approach to estimate the shears and directions in 10 minutes averages with real measurement data. The static model based wind vector field reconstruction is extended in this work taking into account a dynamic reconstruction model based on Taylor's Frozen Turbulence Hypothesis. The presented method provides time series over several seconds of the wind speed, shears and direction, which can be directly used in advanced optimal preview control. Therefore, this work is an important step towards the application of preview individual blade pitch control under realistic wind conditions. The method is tested using a turbulent wind field and a detailed lidar simulator. For the simulation, the turbulent wind field structure is flowing towards the lidar system and is continuously misaligned with respect to the horizontal axis of the wind turbine. Taylor's Frozen Turbulence Hypothesis is taken into account to model the wind evolution. For the reconstruction, the structure is discretized into several stages where each stage is reduced to an effective wind speed, superposed with a linear horizontal and vertical wind shear. Previous lidar measurements are shifted using again Taylor's Hypothesis. The wind field reconstruction problem is then formulated as a nonlinear optimization problem, which minimizes the residual between the assumed wind model and the lidar measurements to obtain the misalignment angle and the effective wind speed and the wind shears for each stage. This method shows good results in reconstructing the wind characteristics of a three

Correlation of Magnetic Fields with Solar Wind Plasma Parameters at 1AU

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, F.

2017-12-01

The physical parameters of the solar wind observed in-situ near 1AU have been studied for several decades, and relationships between them, such as the positive correlation between the solar wind plasma temperature T and velocity V, and the negative correlation between density N and velocity V, are well known. However, the magnetic field intensity does not appear to be well correlated with any individual plasma parameter. In this paper, we discuss previously under-reported correlations between B and the combined plasma parameters √NV2 as well as between B and √NT. These two correlations are strong during the periods of corotating interaction regions and high speed streams, moderate during intervals of slow solar wind, and rather poor during the passage of interplanetary coronal mass ejections. The results indicate that the magnetic pressure in the solar wind is well correlated both with the plasma dynamic pressure and the thermal pressure. Then, we employ a 3D MHD model to simulate the formation of the relationships between the magnetic strength B and √NV2 as well as √NT observed at 1AU. The inner boundary condition is derived by empirical models, with the magnetic field and density are optional. Five kinds of boundary conditions at the inner boundary of heliosphere are tested. In the cases that the magnetic field is related to speed at the inner boundary, the correlation coefficients between B and √NV2 as well as between B and √NT are even higher than that in the observational results. At 1AU the simulated radial magnetic field shows little latitude dependence, which matches the observation of Ulysses. Most of the modeled characters in these cases are closer to observation than others. This inner boundary condition may more accurately characterize Sun's magnetic influence on the heliosphere. The new input may be able to improve the simulation of CME propagation in the inner heliosphere and the space weather forecasting.

Predictions of local ground geomagnetic field fluctuations during the 7-10 November 2004 events studied with solar wind driven models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Wintoft

2005-11-01

Full Text Available The 7-10 November 2004 period contains two events for which the local ground magnetic field was severely disturbed and simultaneously, the solar wind displayed several shocks and negative Bz periods. Using empirical models the 10-min RMS and at Brorfelde (BFE, 11.67° E, 55.63° N, Denmark, are predicted. The models are recurrent neural networks with 10-min solar wind plasma and magnetic field data as inputs. The predictions show a good agreement during 7 November, up until around noon on 8 November, after which the predictions become significantly poorer. The correlations between observed and predicted log RMS is 0.77 during 7-8 November but drops to 0.38 during 9-10 November. For RMS the correlations for the two periods are 0.71 and 0.41, respectively. Studying the solar wind data for other L1-spacecraft (WIND and SOHO it seems that the ACE data have a better agreement to the near-Earth solar wind during the first two days as compared to the last two days. Thus, the accuracy of the predictions depends on the location of the spacecraft and the solar wind flow direction. Another finding, for the events studied here, is that the and models showed a very different dependence on Bz. The model is almost independent of the solar wind magnetic field Bz, except at times when Bz is exceptionally large or when the overall activity is low. On the contrary, the model shows a strong dependence on Bz at all times.

Design Study of Fully Superconducting Wind Turbine Generators

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Song, Xiaowei (Andy); Mijatovic, Nenad; Jensen, Bogi Bech

2015-01-01

In this paper, two fully superconducting generators employing MgB2 armature winding, with YBCO and MgB2 field winding respectively, are presented and analyzed. The ac loss in armature winding is estimated, and a simple comparative study is carried out. The results show that both electromagnetic...... designs for fully superconducting generators are promising with respect to the power density. However, the cost of removing ac loss in armature winding is as high as $900 000. It is also noted that with the current price of YBCO tape, the generator employing MgB 2 field winding would have lower cost....

Pressure field in measurement section of wind tunnel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hnidka Jakub

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The University of Defence in Brno has a new low-speed wind tunnel. In order to confirm the quality of the wind inside of the measurement section, several measurements of the dynamic pressure have been performed with the Pitot-static tube. The pressure fields are then analysed and quality of the field is evaluated. Measurement of a pressure drop on the body of a standing helicopter was conducted.

Numerical forecast test on local wind fields at Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Xiaoqiu

2005-01-01

Non-hydrostatic, full compressible atmospheric dynamics model is applied to perform numerical forecast test on local wind fields at Qinshan nuclear power plant, and prognostic data are compared with observed data for wind fields. The results show that the prognostic of wind speeds is better than that of wind directions as compared with observed results. As the whole, the results of prognostic wind field are consistent with meteorological observation data, 54% of wind speeds are within a factor of 1.5, about 61% of the deviation of wind direction within the 1.5 azimuth (≤33.75 degrees) in the first six hours. (authors)

Wind power installations in Switzerland - Regional planning basics and impact

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ott, W.; Kaufmann, Y.; Steiner, P.; Gilgen, K.; Sartoris, A.

2008-01-01

This report published by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) takes a look at the basics of regional planning and its impact on the construction of wind-energy installations in Switzerland. The authors state that the planning and realisation of wind turbine installations is often time and resource consuming: this document presents and discusses the results obtained in a project that aimed to supply consolidated knowledge on project-relevant basics and their effect with respect to wind-energy installations. Experience gained in Switzerland and in other countries is discussed. This report on the basics of wind-energy planning with its detailed information formed the basis of a checklist described in a further report. In nine chapters, regional planning aspects, environment and landscape-relevant aspects, effects on the national and regional economies and social acceptance factors are discussed. Also, success-factors and possible solutions for the successful realisation of wind-energy projects are looked at.

Conceptual design of an airborne laser Doppler velocimeter system for studying wind fields associated with severe local storms

Science.gov (United States)

Thomson, J. A. L.; Davies, A. R.; Sulzmann, K. G. P.

1976-01-01

An airborne laser Doppler velocimeter was evaluated for diagnostics of the wind field associated with an isolated severe thunderstorm. Two scanning configurations were identified, one a long-range (out to 10-20 km) roughly horizontal plane mode intended to allow probing of the velocity field around the storm at the higher altitudes (4-10 km). The other is a shorter range (out to 1-3 km) mode in which a vertical or horizontal plane is scanned for velocity (and possibly turbulence), and is intended for diagnostics of the lower altitude region below the storm and in the out-flow region. It was concluded that aircraft flight velocities are high enough and severe storm lifetimes are long enough that a single airborne Doppler system, operating at a range of less than about 20 km, can view the storm area from two or more different aspects before the storm characteristics change appreciably.

Solar wind stream interaction regions throughout the heliosphere

Science.gov (United States)

Richardson, Ian G.

2018-01-01

This paper focuses on the interactions between the fast solar wind from coronal holes and the intervening slower solar wind, leading to the creation of stream interaction regions that corotate with the Sun and may persist for many solar rotations. Stream interaction regions have been observed near 1 AU, in the inner heliosphere (at ˜ 0.3-1 AU) by the Helios spacecraft, in the outer and distant heliosphere by the Pioneer 10 and 11 and Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, and out of the ecliptic by Ulysses, and these observations are reviewed. Stream interaction regions accelerate energetic particles, modulate the intensity of Galactic cosmic rays and generate enhanced geomagnetic activity. The remote detection of interaction regions using interplanetary scintillation and white-light imaging, and MHD modeling of interaction regions will also be discussed.

Fourier Simulation of a Non-Isotropic Wind Field Model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mann, J.; Krenk, S.

Realistic modelling of three dimensional wind fields has become important in calculation of dynamic loads on same spatially extended structures, such as large bridges, towers and wind turbines. For some structures the along wind component of the of the turbulent flow is important while for others...

Numerical study on the impact of ground heating and ambient wind speed on flow fields in street canyons

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Lei; Yang, Lin; Zhang, Li-Jie; Jiang, Yin

2012-11-01

The impact of ground heating on flow fields in street canyons under different ambient wind speed conditions was studied based on numerical methods. A series of numerical tests were performed, and three factors including height-to-width (H/W) ratio, ambient wind speed and ground heating intensity were taken into account. Three types of street canyon with H/W ratios of 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0, respectively, were used in the simulation and seven speed values ranging from 0.0 to 3.0 m s-1 were set for the ambient wind speed. The ground heating intensity, which was defined as the difference between the ground temperature and air temperature, ranged from 10 to 40 K with an increase of 10 K in the tests. The results showed that under calm conditions, ground heating could induce circulation with a wind speed of around 1.0 m s-1, which is enough to disperse pollutants in a street canyon. It was also found that an ambient wind speed threshold may exist for street canyons with a fixed H/W ratio. When ambient wind speed was lower than the threshold identified in this study, the impact of the thermal effect on the flow field was obvious, and there existed a multi-vortex flow pattern in the street canyon. When the ambient wind speed was higher than the threshold, the circulation pattern was basically determined by dynamic effects. The tests on the impact of heating intensity showed that a higher ground heating intensity could strengthen the vortical flow within the street canyon, which would help improve pollutant diffusion capability in street canyons.

Design, construction and calibration of a portable boundary layer wind tunnel for field use

Science.gov (United States)

Wind tunnels have been used for several decades to study wind erosion processes. Portable wind tunnels offer the advantage of testing natural surfaces in the field, but they must be carefully designed to insure that a logarithmic boundary layer is formed and that wind erosion processes may develop ...

Research on wind field algorithm of wind lidar based on BP neural network and grey prediction

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yong; Chen, Chun-Li; Luo, Xiong; Zhang, Yan; Yang, Ze-hou; Zhou, Jie; Shi, Xiao-ding; Wang, Lei

2018-01-01

This paper uses the BP neural network and grey algorithm to forecast and study radar wind field. In order to reduce the residual error in the wind field prediction which uses BP neural network and grey algorithm, calculating the minimum value of residual error function, adopting the residuals of the gray algorithm trained by BP neural network, using the trained network model to forecast the residual sequence, using the predicted residual error sequence to modify the forecast sequence of the grey algorithm. The test data show that using the grey algorithm modified by BP neural network can effectively reduce the residual value and improve the prediction precision.

Field Tests of Wind Turbine Unit with Tandem Wind Rotors and Double Rotational Armatures

Science.gov (United States)

Galal, Ahmed Mohamed; Kanemoto, Toshiaki

This paper discusses the field tests of the wind turbine unit, in which the front and the rear wind rotors drive the inner and the outer armatures of the synchronous generator. The wind rotors were designed conveniently by the traditional procedure for the single wind rotor, where the diameters of the front and the rear wind rotors are 2 m and 1.33 m. The tests were done on a pick-up type truck driven straightly at constant speed. The rotational torque of the unit is directly proportional to the induced electric current irrespective of the rotational speeds of the wind rotors, while the induced voltage is proportional to the relative rotational speed. The performance of the unit is significantly affected not only by the wind velocity, but also by the blade setting angles of both wind rotors and the applied load especially at lower wind velocity.

Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer Observations of the Evolution of Massive Star-forming Regions

OpenAIRE

Koenig, X. P.; Leisawitz, D. T.; Benford, D. J.; Rebull, L. M.; Padgett, D. L.; Assef, R. J.

2012-01-01

We present the results of a mid-infrared survey of 11 outer Galaxy massive star-forming regions and 3 open clusters with data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). Using a newly developed photometric scheme to identify young stellar objects and exclude extragalactic contamination, we have studied the distribution of young stars within each region. These data tend to support the hypothesis that latter generations may be triggered by the interaction of winds and radiation from th...

Heat transfer enhancement in a convective field by applying ionic wind

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tada, Y.; Takimoto, A.; Hayashi, Y.

1991-01-01

This paper reports that this study has been conducted to pursue the heat transfer enhancement in a convective field by applying electric field. Firstly, aimed at thinning boundary layer, swirl motions were caused by utilizing the ionic wind in a channel flow with parallel wire-electrode arrangement. Secondly, ionic wind was induced at right angle to the primary flow at regular intervals by using cross wire-electrode arrangement. Thirdly, to utilize the dynamical effect of adding particles under the Coulomb force, electric field was applied to gas-solid suspensions flow field. On the basis of these results, fundamental characteristics of the combined flow structure and the heat transfer in the EHD field were clarified, and the possibility of the practical application will be insighted

How the effects of winds and electric fields in F2-layer storms vary with latitude and longitude - A theoretical study

Science.gov (United States)

Mendillo, M.; He, X.-Q.; Rishbeth, H.

1992-01-01

The effects of thermospheric winds and electric fields on the ionospheric F2-layer are controlled by the geometry of the magnetic field, and so vary with latitude and longitude. A simple model of the daytime F2-layer is adopted and the effects at midlatitudes (25-65 deg geographic) of three processes that accompany geomagnetic storms: (1) thermospheric changes due to auroral heating; (2) equatorward winds that tend to cancel the quiet-day poleward winds; and (3) the penetration of magnetospheric electric fields are studied. At +/- 65 deg, the effects of heating and electric fields are strongest in the longitudes toward which the geomagnetic dipole is tilted, i.e., the North American and the South Indian Ocean sectors. Because of the proximity of the geomagnetic equator to the East Asian and South American sectors, the reverse is true at +/- 25 deg.

Basin-scale wind transport during the MILAGRO field campaign and comparison to climatology using cluster analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. de Foy

2008-03-01

Full Text Available The MILAGRO field campaign was a multi-agency international collaborative project to evaluate the regional impacts of the Mexico City air pollution plume as a means of understanding urban impacts on the global climate. Mexico City lies on an elevated plateau with mountains on three sides and has complex mountain and surface-driven wind flows. This paper asks what the wind transport was in the basin during the field campaign and how representative it was of the climatology. Surface meteorology and air quality data, radiosondes and radar wind profiler data were collected at sites in the basin and its vicinity. Cluster analysis was used to identify the dominant wind patterns both during the campaign and within the past 10 years of operational data from the warm dry season. Our analysis shows that March 2006 was representative of typical flow patterns experienced in the basin. Six episode types were identified for the basin-scale circulation providing a way of interpreting atmospheric chemistry and particulate data collected during the campaign. Decoupling between surface winds and those aloft had a strong influence in leading to convection and poor air quality episodes. Hourly characterisation of wind circulation during the MILAGRO, MCMA-2003 and IMADA field campaigns enables the comparisons of similar air pollution episodes and the evaluation of the impact of wind transport on measurements of the atmospheric chemistry taking place in the basin.

Moroccan wind farm potential feasibility. Case study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nouri, Abdellatif; Ait Babram, Mohamed; Elwarraki, Elmostafa; Enzili, Mustapha

2016-01-01

Highlights: • A new methodology for the technical feasibility of wind farm potentials is proposed. • The wind resources of two different sites in Morocco are compared. • Comparison between short and long term data using multivariate analysis is made. • Geographic information system implementation. • A 10 MW wind farm is designed and optimized. - Abstract: The subject of this paper is the elaboration of a methodology to study the technical feasibility of a wind farm potential. The implementation of this methodology allows a comparison between the wind resources of two different sites in Morocco. One site is located in the region of Essaouira, whereas the other one is located in the region of Safi. The comparison is based on real wind data collected from two masts at the heights of 30, 50, and 60 m. Each of the masts is installed at one of the mentioned potential sites over a fixed time period, lasting fifteen months for the first site, and eight months for the second one. The aim is the determination of the most applicable site presenting a good potential for a statistical study in order to predict long-term wind behaviors. Thus, the geographical situation study of the chosen site including topography, roughness and obstacles, is carried out. Furthermore, the wind resource using data, generated by the measuring masts, is evaluated. Finally, the areas which present great wind potential are located and the wind farm turbine locations are optimized by using the WAsP software.

Proceedings of the International Conference on Wind Energy in Remote Regions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gipe, P.; Brudny, J.F.; Ilinca, A.; Bouchard, Y.; Proulx, P.; Chaumel, J.L.; Brunelle, M.T.; Henin, S.; Beaudoin, P.; Poirier, N.; Belanger, M.

2005-01-01

This international conference focused on the growth opportunities for the wind power industry in Canada, with particular focus on Quebec and eastern Canada. The conference presented formal paper sessions dealing with the largest wind turbine technology to the smallest machines. It also included tutorials, site visits, case studies and commercial exhibits aimed at wind power developers, utility managers, manufacturers, sub-contractors, theoreticians and practitioners. Participants discussed the best and innovative solutions for the efficient regional development of wind power with particular focus on remote, off-grid applications such as isolated northern communities and islands. The presentations emphasized how wind energy can allow isolated communities to reduce their dependence on costly imported diesel fuel by combining modern electronics with wind turbines and diesel power systems. Environmental impacts and future innovations in wind technology were also discussed along with practical solutions for combining wind energy with other sources of energy. The conference featured 30 presentations, of which 18 have been catalogued separately for inclusion in this database. (author)

WIND observations of coherent electrostatic waves in the solar wind

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A. Mangeney

Full Text Available The time domain sampler (TDS experiment on WIND measures electric and magnetic wave forms with a sampling rate which reaches 120 000 points per second. We analyse here observations made in the solar wind near the Lagrange point L1. In the range of frequencies above the proton plasma frequency f_pi and smaller than or of the order of the electron plasma frequency f_pe, TDS observed three kinds of electrostatic (e.s. waves: coherent wave packets of Langmuir waves with frequencies f ~ f_pe, coherent wave packets with frequencies in the ion acoustic range f_pi < f < f_pe, and more or less isolated non-sinusoidal spikes lasting less than 1 ms. We confirm that the observed frequency of the low frequency (LF ion acoustic wave packets is dominated by the Doppler effect: the wavelengths are short, 10 to 50 electron Debye lengths λ_D. The electric field in the isolated electrostatic structures (IES and in the LF wave packets is more or less aligned with the solar wind magnetic field. Across the IES, which have a spatial width of the order of ~ 25λ_D, there is a small but finite electric potential drop, implying an average electric field generally directed away from the Sun. The IES wave forms, which have not been previously reported in the solar wind, are similar, although with a smaller amplitude, to the weak double layers observed in the auroral regions, and to the electrostatic solitary waves observed in other regions in the magnetosphere. We have also studied the solar wind conditions which favour the occurrence of the three kinds of waves: all these e.s. waves are observed more or less continuously in the whole solar wind (except in the densest regions where a parasite prevents the TDS observations. The type (wave packet or IES of the observed LF waves is mainly determined

Statistical downscaling of historical monthly mean winds over a coastal region of complex terrain. II. Predicting wind components

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kamp, Derek van der [University of Victoria, Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium, Victoria, BC (Canada); University of Victoria, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Victoria, BC (Canada); Curry, Charles L. [Environment Canada University of Victoria, Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, Victoria, BC (Canada); University of Victoria, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Victoria, BC (Canada); Monahan, Adam H. [University of Victoria, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Victoria, BC (Canada)

2012-04-15

A regression-based downscaling technique was applied to monthly mean surface wind observations from stations throughout western Canada as well as from buoys in the Northeast Pacific Ocean over the period 1979-2006. A predictor set was developed from principal component analysis of the three wind components at 500 hPa and mean sea-level pressure taken from the NCEP Reanalysis II. Building on the results of a companion paper, Curry et al. (Clim Dyn 2011), the downscaling was applied to both wind speed and wind components, in an effort to evaluate the utility of each type of predictand. Cross-validated prediction skill varied strongly with season, with autumn and summer displaying the highest and lowest skill, respectively. In most cases wind components were predicted with better skill than wind speeds. The predictive ability of wind components was found to be strongly related to their orientation. Wind components with the best predictions were often oriented along topographically significant features such as constricted valleys, mountain ranges or ocean channels. This influence of directionality on predictive ability is most prominent during autumn and winter at inland sites with complex topography. Stations in regions with relatively flat terrain (where topographic steering is minimal) exhibit inter-station consistencies including region-wide seasonal shifts in the direction of the best predicted wind component. The conclusion that wind components can be skillfully predicted only over a limited range of directions at most stations limits the scope of statistically downscaled wind speed predictions. It seems likely that such limitations apply to other regions of complex terrain as well. (orig.)

Predictions of local ground geomagnetic field fluctuations during the 7-10 November 2004 events studied with solar wind driven models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Wintoft

2005-11-01

Full Text Available The 7-10 November 2004 period contains two events for which the local ground magnetic field was severely disturbed and simultaneously, the solar wind displayed several shocks and negative B_z periods. Using empirical models the 10-min RMS and at Brorfelde (BFE, 11.67° E, 55.63° N, Denmark, are predicted. The models are recurrent neural networks with 10-min solar wind plasma and magnetic field data as inputs. The predictions show a good agreement during 7 November, up until around noon on 8 November, after which the predictions become significantly poorer. The correlations between observed and predicted log RMS is 0.77 during 7-8 November but drops to 0.38 during 9-10 November. For RMS the correlations for the two periods are 0.71 and 0.41, respectively. Studying the solar wind data for other L1-spacecraft (WIND and SOHO it seems that the ACE data have a better agreement to the near-Earth solar wind during the first two days as compared to the last two days. Thus, the accuracy of the predictions depends on the location of the spacecraft and the solar wind flow direction. Another finding, for the events studied here, is that the and models showed a very different dependence on B_z. The model is almost independent of the solar wind magnetic field B_z, except at times when B_z is exceptionally large or when the overall activity is low. On the contrary, the model shows a strong dependence on B_z at all times.

North region wind power prospects and its impact on the environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kniazeva, V.; Marchuk, S.

1992-01-01

The article presents the analysis of wind energy prospects for the Kola Peninsula based on wind energy potential and environment improvement in the region. Data on ecological situation in the region and harmful industrial and power engineering outbursts is also provided. It is suggested to use part of the money received as payments from different organizations for harmful influence on environment to finance ecologically clean wind energy project development

Security region-based small signal stability analysis of power systems with FSIG based wind farm

Science.gov (United States)

Qin, Chao; Zeng, Yuan; Yang, Yang; Cui, Xiaodan; Xu, Xialing; Li, Yong

2018-02-01

Based on the Security Region approach, the impact of fixed-speed induction generator based wind farm on the small signal stability of power systems is analyzed. Firstly, the key factors of wind farm on the small signal stability of power systems are analyzed and the parameter space for small signal stability region is formed. Secondly, the small signal stability region of power systems with wind power is established. Thirdly, the corresponding relation between the boundary of SSSR and the dominant oscillation mode is further studied. Results show that the integration of fixed-speed induction generator based wind farm will cause the low frequency oscillation stability of the power system deteriorate. When the output of wind power is high, the oscillation stability of the power system is mainly concerned with the inter-area oscillation mode caused by the integration of the wind farm. Both the active power output and the capacity of reactive power compensation of the wind farm have a significant influence on the SSSR. To improve the oscillation stability of power systems with wind power, it is suggested to reasonably set the reactive power compensation capacity for the wind farm through SSSR.

Retrieving 3D Wind Field from Phased Array Radar Rapid Scans

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaobin Qiu

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The previous two-dimensional simple adjoint method for retrieving horizontal wind field from a time sequence of single-Doppler scans of reflectivity and/or radial velocity is further developed into a new method to retrieve both horizontal and vertical winds at high temporal and spatial resolutions. This new method performs two steps. First, the horizontal wind field is retrieved on the conical surface at each tilt (elevation angle of radar scan. Second, the vertical velocity field is retrieved in a vertical cross-section along the radar beam with the horizontal velocity given from the first step. The method is applied to phased array radar (PAR rapid scans of the storm winds and reflectivity in a strong microburst event and is shown to be able to retrieve the three-dimensional wind field around a targeted downdraft within the storm that subsequently produced a damaging microburst. The method is computationally very efficient and can be used for real-time applications with PAR rapid scans.

Momentum flux of the solar wind near planetary magnetospheres: a comparative study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Perez de Tejada, H.

1985-01-01

A study of the velocity profiles of the shocked solar wind exterior to the magnetospheres of the Earth, Mars and Venus is presented. A characteristic difference exists between the conditions present in planets with and without a strong intrinsic magnetic field. In a strongly magnetized planet (as it is the case in the earth), the velocity of the solar wind near the magnetopause remains nearly constant along directions normal to that boundary. In weakly magnetized planets (Venus, Mars), on the other hand, the velocity profile near the magnetopause/ionopause exhibits a transverse gradient which implies decreased values of the momentum flux of the solar wind in those regions. The implications of the different behavior of the shocked solar wind are discussed in connection with the nature of the interaction process that takes place in each case. (author)

Simulations of Wind Field Effect on Two-Stream Waves in the Equatorial Electrojet

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chi-Lon Fern

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The wind field effect on the phase veloc i ties of 3- to 10-me ter Farley-Buneman two-stream waves in the equato rial E region ion o sphere at al titudes in the range of 95 - 110 km is stud ied by nu mer i cal simu la tion. The behav ior of this two-stream wave in the uni form wind field Un in a plane per pen dic u lar to the Earth’s mag netic field is simu lated with a two-di men sional two-fluid code in which elec tron in er tia is ne glected while ion in er tia is re tained. It is con firmed that, the thresh old con di tion for the ap pear ance of two-stream waves is VD C U th » + s + n (1 / cos Y0 q ; and the phase ve loc ity of the two-stream wave at the thresh old con di tion is Vp » Cs + Un cos q, where q is the ele va tion an gle of the wave prop a ga tion in a limited range and Y0 = ninnen / WiWe. The first formula in di cates that the wind field paral lel (anti-par al lel to the elec tron drift ve loc ity will raise (lower the thresh old drift ve loc ity by the amount of the wind speed. This means that par al lel wind is a sta ble fac tor, while anti-paral lel wind is an un sta ble fac tor of two-stream waves. This may ex plain why high speed (larger than acous tic speed two-stream waves were rarely ob served, since larger thresh old drift veloc ity de mands larger po larization elec tric field. The result of the simu la tions at the sat u ra tion stage show that when VD was only slightly larger than VD th , the hor i zon tal phase ve loc ity of the two-stream wave would grad u ally down-shift to the thresh old phase ve loc ity Cs + Un. The physical implications of which are discussed

Turbulent wind field characterization and re-generation based on pitot tube measurements mounted on a wind turbine

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Mads Mølgaard; Larsen, Torben J.; Aagaard Madsen, Helge

2015-01-01

models that compensate for axial and tangential induction, approximated by blade element momentum theory, radial expansion of the inflow, rotor tilt, dynamic and skew inflow, tip loss, as well as braking and circulation of the flow local to the airfoil. The wind speeds measured on the rotating blades...... the measured wind speeds at the recording position. In the theoretical part of this study a quite good agreement is seen between load sensors on a turbine model exposed to the reference and the re-generated turbulence field. Finally the method is applied to full scale measurements and reasonable wind shear...

Interaction of the solar wind with the planet Mars: Phobos 2 magnetic field observations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Riedler, W.; Schwingenschuh, K.; Lichtenegger, H.

1991-01-01

The magnetometers on board the Phobos 2 spacecraft provided the opportunity to study the magnetic environment around Mars, including regions which have never been explored before, such as at low altitudes (down to 850 km above the surface of Mars) and in the tail. The data revealed a bow shock, characterized by a distinct jump in the magnetic field strength and a boundary denoted ''planetopause'', where the level of turbulence of the magnetic field changes. Inside the planetopause the field remains quiet. Some of the main characteristics of the bow shock and the magnetosheath can be reproduced by computer simulations within the framework of a gas-dynamic model using the observed planetopause as an obstacle for the incoming solar wind. In many spacecraft orbits around Mars, reversals of the B x -component were found which are typical for tail crossings. A first analysis of the tail data from the circular orbits at a distance of 2.8 Mars radii showed several cases where the reversal of the tail lobes was controlled by the IMF. This supports the idea of an induced character of the solar wind interaction with Mars outside a distance of about 2.8 Mars radii. However, there are certain features in the magnetic field data which could be interpreted as traces of a weak Martian intrinsic field. (author)

Application of fuzzy logic approach for wind erosion hazard mapping in Laghouat region (Algeria) using remote sensing and GIS

Science.gov (United States)

Saadoud, Djouher; Hassani, Mohamed; Martin Peinado, Francisco José; Guettouche, Mohamed Saïd

2018-06-01

Wind erosion is one of the most serious environmental problems in Algeria that threatens human activities and socio-economic development. The main goal of this study is to apply a fuzzy logic approach to wind erosion sensitivity mapping in the Laghouat region, Algeria. Six causative factors, obtained by applying fuzzy membership functions to each used parameter, are considered: soil, vegetation cover, wind factor, soil dryness, land topography and land cover sensitivity. Different fuzzy operators (AND, OR, SUM, PRODUCT, and GAMMA) are applied to generate wind-erosion hazard map. Success rate curves reveal that the fuzzy gamma (γ) operator, with γ equal to 0.9, gives the best prediction accuracy with an area under curve of 85.2%. The resulting wind-erosion sensitivity map delineates the area into different zones of five relative sensitivity classes: very high, high, moderate, low and very low. The estimated result was verified by field measurements and the high statistically significant value of a chi-square test.

Modeling wind energy potential in a data-poor region: A geographic information systems model for Iraq

Science.gov (United States)

Khayyat, Abdulkareem Hawta Abdullah Kak Ahmed

Scope and Method of Study: Most developing countries, including Iraq, have very poor wind data. Existing wind speed measurements of poor quality may therefore be a poor guide to where to look for the best wind resources. The main focus of this study is to examine how effectively a GIS spatial model estimates wind power potential in regions where high-quality wind data are very scarce, such as Iraq. The research used a mixture of monthly and hourly wind data from 39 meteorological stations. The study applied spatial analysis statistics and GIS techniques in modeling wind power potential. The model weighted important human, environmental and geographic factors that impact wind turbine siting, such as roughness length, land use⪉nd cover type, airport locations, road access, transmission lines, slope and aspect. Findings and Conclusions: The GIS model provided estimations for wind speed and wind power density and identified suitable areas for wind power projects. Using a high resolution (30*30m) digital elevation model DEM improved the GIS wind suitability model. The model identified areas suitable for wind farm development on different scales. The model showed that there are many locations available for large-scale wind turbines in the southern part of Iraq. Additionally, there are many places in central and northern parts (Kurdistan Region) for smaller scale wind turbine placement.

Do Transient Electrodynamic Processes Support Enhanced Neutral Mass Densities in Earth's Cusp-Region Thermosphere via Divergent Upward Winds?

Science.gov (United States)

Conde, M.; Larsen, M. F.; Troyer, R.; Gillespie, D.; Kosch, M.

2017-12-01

Satellite accelerometer measurements show that Earth's thermosphere contains two substantial and permanent regions of enhanced mass density that are located at around 400 km altitude near the footprints of the north and south geomagnetic cusps. The additional mass in these regions must be supported against gravity, which requires that similarly localized perturbations must occur in one or more of the other fields (beyond mass density) that appear in the momentum conservation equation for the thermospheric neutral fluid. However more than a decade after the density enhancements were first discovered, there are still no observations of any other corresponding perturbations to terms appearing directly in this equation that would indicate what is supporting the extra mass. To date, most candidate mechanisms involve high-altitude transient electrodynamic heating (at 250 km and above) that drives upwelling and associated horizontal divergence. Indeed, there are very few viable mechanisms that don't ultimately cause substantial localized neutral wind perturbations to occur near the density anomalies. Thus, we report here on a study to search for signatures of these localized perturbations in winds, using several data sources. These are the WATS instrument that flew aboard the DE-2 spacecraft, the C-REX-1 rocket flight through the CUSP in 2014, and two ground-based Fabry-Perot instruments that are located in Antarctica at latitudes that pass under the geomagnetic cusps - i.e. at McMurdo and South Pole stations. Using these data, we will present both climatological averages and also individual case studies to illustrate what localized signatures occur (if any) in the neutral wind fields near the cusp-region density anomalies.

Self consistent MHD modeling of the solar wind from polar coronal holes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stewart, G. A.; Bravo, S.

1996-01-01

We have developed a 2D self consistent MHD model for solar wind flow from antisymmetric magnetic geometries. We present results in the case of a photospheric magnetic field which has a dipolar configuration, in order to investigate some of the general characteristics of the wind at solar minimum. As in previous studies, we find that the magnetic configuration is that of a closed field region (a coronal helmet belt) around the solar equator, extending up to about 1.6 R · , and two large open field regions centred over the poles (polar coronal holes), whose magnetic and plasma fluxes expand to fill both hemispheres in interplanetary space. In addition, we find that the different geometries of the magnetic field lines across each hole (from the almost radial central polar lines to the highly curved border equatorial lines) cause the solar wind to have greatly different properties depending on which region it flows from. We find that, even though our simplified model cannot produce realistic wind values, we can obtain a polar wind that is faster, less dense and hotter than equatorial wind, and found that, close to the Sun, there exists a sharp transition between the two wind types. As these characteristics coincide with observations we conclude that both fast and slow solar wind can originate from coronal holes, fast wind from the centre, slow wind from the border

Suspended sediment diffusion mechanisms in the Yangtze Estuary influenced by wind fields

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Lihua; Zhou, Yunxuan; Shen, Fang

2018-01-01

The complexity of suspended sediment concentration (SSC) distribution and diffusion has been widely recognized because it is influenced by sediment supply and various hydrodynamic forcing conditions that vary over space and over time. Sediment suspended by waves and transported by currents are the dominant sediment transport mechanisms in estuarine and coastal areas. However, it is unclear to what extent the SSC distribution is impacted by each hydrodynamic factor. Research on the quantitative influence of wind fields on the SSC diffusion range will contribute to a better understanding of the characteristics of sediment transport change and sedimentary geomorphic evolution. This study determined SSC from three Envisat Medium-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer acquisitions, covering the Yangtze Estuary and adjacent water area under the same season and tidal conditions but with varying wind conditions. SSC was examined based on the Semi-Empirical Radiative Transfer model, which has been well validated with the observation data. Integrating the corresponding wind field information from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts further facilitated the discussion of wind fields affecting SSC, and in turn the influence of water and suspended sediment transportation and diffusion in the Yangtze estuarine and coastal area. The results demonstrated that the SSC present much more distinctive fluvial features in the inner estuary and wind fields are one of the major factors controlling the range of turbid water diffusion.

2017 State of Wind Development in the United States by Region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oteri, Frank A [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Baranowski, Ruth E [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Baring-Gould, Edward I [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Tegen, Suzanne I [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2018-04-13

This document summarizes the status and drivers for U.S. wind energy development during 2017. Regional Resource Center (RRC) leaders provided a report of wind energy development in their regions, which was combined with findings from National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers to provide an account of the state of the regions, as well as updates on developments in individual states. NREL researchers and state partners added updates for all states that are not directly supported by an RRC. Accounts for each region include updates on renewable portfolio standards, workforce development, manufacturing and economic development, and individual state updates for installed wind capacity, ongoing policy developments, planned projects and their status, transmission progress reports, etc. This report also highlights the efforts of the RRCs to engage stakeholders in their individual regions.

On the Wind Energy Resource and Its Trend in the East China Sea

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adekunle Ayodotun Osinowo

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This study utilizes a 30-year (1980–2009 10 m wind field dataset obtained from the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecast to investigate the wind energy potential in the East China Sea (ECS by using Weibull shape and scale parameters. The region generally showed good wind characteristics. The calculated annual mean of the wind power resource revealed the potential of the region for large-scale grid-connected wind turbine applications. Furthermore, the spatiotemporal variations showed strong trends in wind power in regions surrounding Taiwan Island. These regions were evaluated with high wind potential and were rated as excellent locations for installation of large wind turbines for electrical energy generation. Nonsignificant and negative trends dominated the ECS and the rest of the regions; therefore, these locations were found to be suitable for small wind applications. The wind power density exhibited an insignificant trend in the ECS throughout the study period. The trend was strongest during spring and weakest during autumn.

Effects of atmospheric oscillations on the field-aligned ion motions in the polar F-region

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S. Oyama

Full Text Available The field-aligned neutral oscillations in the F-region (altitudes between 165 and 275 km were compared using data obtained simultaneously with two independent instruments: the European Incoherent Scatter (EISCAT UHF radar and a scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI. During the night of February 8, 1997, simultaneous observations with these instruments were conducted at Tromsø, Norway. Theoretically, the field-aligned neutral wind velocity can be obtained from the field-aligned ion velocity and by diffusion and ambipolar diffusion velocities. We thus derived field-aligned neutral wind velocities from the plasma velocities in EISCAT radar data. They were compared with those observed with the FPI (λ=630.0 nm, which are assumed to be weighted height averages of the actual neutral wind. The weighting function is the normalized height dependent emission rate. We used two model weighting functions to derive the neutral wind from EISCAT data. One was that the neutral wind velocity observed with the FPI is velocity integrated over the entire emission layer and multiplied by the theoretical normalized emission rate. The other was that the neutral wind velocity observed with the FPI corresponds to the velocity only around an altitude where the emission rate has a peak. Differences between the two methods were identified, but not completely clarified. However, the neutral wind velocities from both instruments had peak-to-peak correspondences at oscillation periods of about 10–40 min, shorter than that for the momentum transfer from ions to neutrals, but longer than from neutrals to ions. The synchronizing motions in the neutral wind velocities suggest that the momentum transfer from neutrals to ions was thought to be dominant for the observed field-aligned oscillations rather than the transfer from ions to neutrals. It is concluded that during the observation, the plasma oscillations observed with the EISCAT radar at different altitudes

Spiral field inhibition of thermal conduction in two-fluid solar wind models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nerney, S.; Barnes, A.

1978-01-01

The two-fluid solar wind equations, including inhibition of heat conduction by the spiral magnetic field, have been solved for steady radial flow, and the results are compared with those of our previous study of two-fluid models with straight interplanetary field lines. The main effects of the spiral field conduction cutoff are to bottle up electron heat inside 1 AU and to produce adiabatic electron (an proton) temperature profiles at large heliocentric distances. Otherwise, the spiral field models are nearly identical with straight field models with the same temperatures and velocity at 1 AU, except for models associated with very low coronal base densities (n 0 approx.10 6 cm -3 at 1R/sub s/). Low base density spiral models give a nearly isothermal electron temperature profile over 50--100 AU together with high velocities and temperatures at 1 AU. In general, high-velocity models do not agree well with observed high-velocity streams: lower-velocity states can be represented reasonably well at 1 AU, but only for very high proton temperatures (T/sub p/approx.2T/sub e/) at the coronal base. For spherically symmetric base conditions the straight field and spiral field models can be regarded, in lowest order, as approximations to the polar and equatorial three-dimensional flows, respectively. This viewpoint suggests a pole to equator electron temperature gradient in the region 1-10 AU, which would be associated with a meridional velocity of approx.0.5-1.0 km/s, diverging away from the equatorial plane. The formalism developed in this paper shows rather stringent limits to the mass loss rate for conductively driven winds and, in particular, illustrates that putative T Tauri outflows could not be conductively driven

Global surface wind and flux fields from model assimilation of Seasat data

Science.gov (United States)

Atlas, R.; Busalacchi, A. J.; Kalnay, E.; Bloom, S.; Ghil, M.

1986-01-01

Procedures for dealiasing Seasat data and developing global surface wind and latent and sensible heat flux fields are discussed. Seasat data from September 20, 1978 was dealiased using the Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheres (GLA) analysis/forecast system. The wind data obtained with the objective GLA forecast model are compared to the data subjectively dealiased by Peteherych et al. (1984) and Hoffman (1982, 1984). The GLA procedure is also verified using simulated Seasat data. The areas of high and low heat fluxes and cyclonic and anticyclonic wind stresses detected in the generated fields are analyzed and compared to climatological fields. It is observed that there is good correlation between the time-averaged analyses of wind stress obtained subjectively and objectively, and the monthly mean wind stress and latent fluxes agree with climatological fields and atmospheric and oceanic features.

The relation between Puelche wind and the occurrence of forest fires in Bio Bio region, Chile

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Inzunza, Juan Carlos

2009-01-01

This paper presents a study of the relation between Puelche wind and forest fires in the Bio Bio Region, Chile. To establish a relationship between Puelche wind and forest fire generation, different data analysis methods and statistics test were applied. The relation between the total number of fires in the season and the days with Puelche wind were not statistically significant. When analyzing daily averages of fires produced with and without Puelche wind for each season, the highest daily fire occurrence values were found when there is Puelche wind, indicating that this event produces a strong effect on the daily occurrence of fires since these increased by 90% in comparison to the days without Puelche wind. The results of the difference between the number of fires with and without Puelche wind with respect to the average number of total fires indicate that the days with Puelche wind surpass both the total and the average values for days without Puelche wind, confirming the strong effect that a Puelche wind day has on forest fires. The greatest number of fires produced with Puelche wind occurs in the Province of Concepcion. This Province is the most affected by Puelche wind conditions despite having the smallest surface area for the region studied. Still, it is the most populous province of the region and has the greatest surface area with forests and plantations with respect to its size. Consequently, Puelche wind is a factor that increases the occurrence of forest fires and favors their propagation.

Characterization of the wind loads and flow fields around a gable-roof building model in tornado-like winds

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hu, Hui; Yang, Zifeng; Sarkar, Partha [Iowa State University, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Ames, IA (United States); Haan, Fred [Iowa State University, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Ames, IA (United States); Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Terre Haute, IN (United States)

2011-09-15

An experimental study was conducted to quantify the characteristics of a tornado-like vortex and to reveal the dynamics of the flow-structure interactions between a low-rise, gable-roof building model and swirling, turbulent tornado-like winds. The experimental work was conducted by using a large-scale tornado simulator located in the Aerospace Engineering Department of Iowa State University. In addition to measuring the pressure distributions and resultant wind loads acting on the building model, a digital Particle Image Velocimetry system was used to conduct detailed flow field measurements to quantify the evolution of the unsteady vortices and turbulent flow structures around the gable-roof building model in tornado-like winds. The effects of important parameters, such as the distance between the centers of the tornado-like vortex and the test model and the orientation angles of the building model related to the tornado-like vortex, on the evolutions of the wake vortices and turbulent flow structures around the gable-roof building model as well as the wind loads induced by the tornado-like vortex were assessed quantitatively. The detailed flow field measurements were correlated with the surface pressure and wind load measurements to elucidate the underlying physics to gain further insight into flow-structure interactions between the gable-roof building model and tornado-like winds in order to provide more accurate prediction of wind damage potential to built structures. (orig.)

Equatorial F region neutral winds and shears near sunset measured with chemical release techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Kiene, A.; Larsen, M. F.; Kudeki, E.

2015-10-01

The period near sunset is a dynamic and critical time for the daily development of the equatorial nighttime ionosphere and the instabilities that occur there. It is during these hours that the preconditions necessary for the later development of Equatorial Spread F (ESF) plasma instabilities occur. The neutral dynamics of the sunset ionosphere are also of critical importance to the generation of currents and electric fields; however, the behavior of the neutrals is experimentally understood primarily through very limited single-altitude measurements or measurements that provide weighted altitude means of the winds as a function of time. To date, there have been very few vertically resolved neutral wind measurements in the F region at sunset. We present two sets of sounding rocket chemical release measurements, one from a launch in the Marshall Islands on Kwajalein atoll and one from Alcantara, Brazil. Analysis of the release motions has yielded vertically resolved neutral wind profiles that show both the mean horizontal winds and the vertical shears in the winds. In both experiments, we observe significant vertical gradients in the zonal wind that are unexpected by classical assumptions about the behavior of the neutral wind at these altitudes at sunset near the geomagnetic equator.

Field investigation of a wake structure downwind of a VANT (Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine) in a wind farm array

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, H. T.; Buck, J. W.; Germain, A. C.; Hinchee, M. E.; Solt, T. S.; Leroy, G. M.; Srnsky, R. A.

1988-09-01

The effects of upwind turbine wakes on the performance of a FloWind 17-m vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) were investigated through a series of field experiments conducted at the FloWind wind farm on Cameron Ridge, Tehachapi, California. From the field measurements, we derived the velocity and power/energy deficits under various turbine on/off configurations. Much information was provided to characterize the structure of VAWT wakes and to assess their effects on the performance of downwind turbines. A method to estimate the energy deficit was developed based on the measured power deficit and the wind speed distributions. This method may be adopted for other turbine types and sites. Recommendations are made for optimizing wind farm design and operations, as well as for wind energy management.

Coronal holes and high-speed wind streams

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zirker, J.B.

1977-01-01

Coronal holes low have been identified as Bartel's M regions, i.e., sources of high-speed wind streams that produce recurrent geomagnetic variations. Throughout the Skylab period the polar caps of the Sun were coronal holes, and at lower latitudes the most persistent and recurrent holes were equatorial extensions of the polar caps. The holes rotated 'rigidly' at the equatorial synodic rate. They formed in regions of unipolar photospheric magnetic field, and their internal magnetic fields diverged rapidly with increasing distance from the sun. The geometry of the magnetic field in the inner corona seems to control both the physical properties of the holes and the global distribution of high-speed wind streams in the heliosphere. The latitude variation of the divergence of the coronal magnetic field lines produces corresponding variations in wind speed.During the years of declining solar activity the global field of the corona approximates a perturbed dipole. The divergence of field lines in each hemisphere produces a high-speed wind near the poles and low-speed wind in a narrow belt that coincides with the magnetic neutral sheet. The analysis of electron density measurements within a polar hole indicates that solar wind is accelerated principally in the region between 2 and 5 R/sub s/ and that mechanical wave pressure (possibly Alfven wave) may be responsible for the accleration of the wind. Phenomenological models for the birth and decay of coronal holes have been proposed. Attempts to explain the birth and rigid rotation of holes through dynamo action have been only partially successful. The 11-year variation of cosmic ray intensities at the earth may result from cyclic variation of open field regions associated with coronal holes

Altitude dependent neutral wind effects on the nonlinear motion of a small barium cloud

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Book, D.L.; Ossakow, S.L.; Goldman, S.R.

1975-01-01

The nonlinear motion of a small F region barium release electrostatically coupled to the E region is studied in the presence of a neutral wind with differing values for the E and F regions. In a reference frame moving with the E region neutral wind and F region neutral wind transverse to the background E 0 field is shown to retard or accelerate the evolution of the cloud without otherwise altering the development of the system. When the relative neutral wind has a component parallel to the background E 0 field, there is also a change in the direction of the axis of elongation of the cloud as a function of time, although the final direction is independent of the relative neutral wind. Barium cloud and image behavior are shown to be substantially identical for periodic and Dirichlet boundary conditions

Project 'WINDBANK mittleres Aaretal' - Analysis, Diagnosis and Forecast of Wind Fields around the Nuclear Power Plant Goesgen; Projekt 'WINDBANK mittleres Aaretal' - Analyse, Diagnose und Prognose der Windverhaeltnisse um das Kernkraftwerk Goesgen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Graber, W.K.; Tinguely, M

2002-07-01

An emergency decision support system for accidental releases of radioactivity into the atmosphere providing regional wind field information is presented. This system is based on intensive meteorological field campaigns each lasting 3-4 months in the regions around the Swiss nuclear power plants. The wind data from temporary and permanent stations are analysed to evaluate the typical wind field patterns occurring in these regions. A cluster analysis for these data-sets lead to 12 different wind field classes with a high separation quality. In the present report, it is demonstrated that an on-line acquisition of meteorological data from existing permanent stations is enough to diagnose the recent wind field class in a region with a radius of 25 km around the nuclear power station of Goesgen with a probability of 95% to hit the correct class. Furthermore, a method is presented to use a high resolution weather prediction model to forecast the future wind field classes. An average probability of 76% to hit the correct class for a forecast time of 24 hours is evaluated. Finally, a method for parameterization of turbulence providing input for dispersion models from standard meteorological online data is presented. (author)

Economical and social fallouts of offshore wind energy in regions. The German example

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Persem, Melanie

2012-01-01

This document presents some key information and figures about the regional development of offshore wind energy in Germany: national energy plan, goals and actual development of offshore wind energy, regional investment, Government's commitment and budget allocated, the German wind power industry and its present and future impact on employment, projects in the North and Baltic seas, wind farms and capacity, electricity feed-in tariffs

Simulation of the Impacts of Urbanization on Winter Meteorological Fields over the Pearl River Delta Region

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Naixing Luo

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The influences of urbanization on weather in Guangdong Province, China, were studied using the Weather Research and Forecasting model from 31 December 2009 through 3 January 2010. Model outputs were compared with extensive monitoring of meteorological data to examine the simulation ability. Model results between tests (with and without land-use change show that the urbanization had major effects on meteorological fields across nearly the entire Pearl River Delta region and particularly in urban areas. Studied fields (wind speed, temperature, precipitation, and sensible and latent heat fluxes were affected by the urbanization of the PRD region. The major influences occurred in urban areas, where wind speeds decreased greatly, while the daytime surface upward sensible heat flux clearly increased. Unlike the sensible heat flux, the latent heat flux had a nonmonotonic increase or decrease. As a consequence of the two heat fluxes, 2-m temperature varied with location and time. Change of precipitation was complex. The main rain band became more concentrated, while precipitation decreased upwind of the urban area and increased downwind.

National Offshore Wind Energy Grid Interconnection Study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Daniel, John P. [ABB Inc; Liu, Shu [ABB Inc; Ibanez, Eduardo [National Renewable Energy Laboratory; Pennock, Ken [AWS Truepower; Reed, Greg [University of Pittsburgh; Hanes, Spencer [Duke Energy

2014-07-30

The National Offshore Wind Energy Grid Interconnection Study (NOWEGIS) considers the availability and potential impacts of interconnecting large amounts of offshore wind energy into the transmission system of the lower 48 contiguous United States. A total of 54GW of offshore wind was assumed to be the target for the analyses conducted. A variety of issues are considered including: the anticipated staging of offshore wind; the offshore wind resource availability; offshore wind energy power production profiles; offshore wind variability; present and potential technologies for collection and delivery of offshore wind energy to the onshore grid; potential impacts to existing utility systems most likely to receive large amounts of offshore wind; and regulatory influences on offshore wind development. The technologies considered the reliability of various high-voltage ac (HVAC) and high-voltage dc (HVDC) technology options and configurations. The utility system impacts of GW-scale integration of offshore wind are considered from an operational steady-state perspective and from a regional and national production cost perspective.

Wind resource and plant output data sets for wind integration studies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Frank, Jaclyn D.; Manobianco, John; Alonge, Charles J.; Brower, Michael C. [AWS Truepower, Albany, NY (United States)

2010-07-01

One of the first step towards understanding the impact of increasing penetrations of wind is developing data sets of wind power output over large regions. To facilitate the development of these data sets, AWS Truepower (AWST) generated wind speeds over multiple years (2-3) using the Mesoscale Atmospheric Simulation System (MASS). These simulations were performed with high spatial resolution (1-2 km) to capture the wind flows over each area of interest. Output was saved in 10-minute interval to capture variations in wind speed so that plant output could be analyzed against utility load and system operations. This paper will describe the methodology of mesoscale modeling, site selection, conversion to power, and downscaling to high frequency output. Additionally, the generation of synthetic forecasts will be discussed. The validation results from recent studies in the eastern United States and Hawaii will be highlighted. (orig.)

Measuring electromagnetic fields (EMF) around wind turbines in Canada: is there a human health concern?

Science.gov (United States)

McCallum, Lindsay C; Whitfield Aslund, Melissa L; Knopper, Loren D; Ferguson, Glenn M; Ollson, Christopher A

2014-02-15

The past five years has seen considerable expansion of wind power generation in Ontario, Canada. Most recently worries about exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) from wind turbines, and associated electrical transmission, has been raised at public meetings and legal proceedings. These fears have not been based on any actual measurements of EMF exposure surrounding existing projects but appear to follow from worries from internet sources and misunderstanding of the science. The study was carried out at the Kingsbridge 1 Wind Farm located near Goderich, Ontario, Canada. Magnetic field measurements were collected in the proximity of 15 Vestas 1.8 MW wind turbines, two substations, various buried and overhead collector and transmission lines, and nearby homes. Data were collected during three operational scenarios to characterize potential EMF exposure: 'high wind' (generating power), 'low wind' (drawing power from the grid, but not generating power) and 'shut off' (neither drawing, nor generating power). Background levels of EMF (0.2 to 0.3 mG) were established by measuring magnetic fields around the wind turbines under the 'shut off' scenario. Magnetic field levels detected at the base of the turbines under both the 'high wind' and 'low wind' conditions were low (mean = 0.9 mG; n = 11) and rapidly diminished with distance, becoming indistinguishable from background within 2 m of the base. Magnetic fields measured 1 m above buried collector lines were also within background (≤ 0.3 mG). Beneath overhead 27.5 kV and 500 kV transmission lines, magnetic field levels of up to 16.5 and 46 mG, respectively, were recorded. These levels also diminished rapidly with distance. None of these sources appeared to influence magnetic field levels at nearby homes located as close as just over 500 m from turbines, where measurements immediately outside of the homes were ≤ 0.4 mG. The results suggest that there is nothing unique to wind farms with respect to EMF exposure; in

Statistics-Based Compression of Global Wind Fields

KAUST Repository

Jeong, Jaehong

2017-02-07

Wind has the potential to make a significant contribution to future energy resources. Locating the sources of this renewable energy on a global scale is however extremely challenging, given the difficulty to store very large data sets generated by modern computer models. We propose a statistical model that aims at reproducing the data-generating mechanism of an ensemble of runs via a Stochastic Generator (SG) of global annual wind data. We introduce an evolutionary spectrum approach with spatially varying parameters based on large-scale geographical descriptors such as altitude to better account for different regimes across the Earth\\'s orography. We consider a multi-step conditional likelihood approach to estimate the parameters that explicitly accounts for nonstationary features while also balancing memory storage and distributed computation. We apply the proposed model to more than 18 million points of yearly global wind speed. The proposed SG requires orders of magnitude less storage for generating surrogate ensemble members from wind than does creating additional wind fields from the climate model, even if an effective lossy data compression algorithm is applied to the simulation output.

Statistics-Based Compression of Global Wind Fields

KAUST Repository

Jeong, Jaehong; Castruccio, Stefano; Crippa, Paola; Genton, Marc G.

2017-01-01

Wind has the potential to make a significant contribution to future energy resources. Locating the sources of this renewable energy on a global scale is however extremely challenging, given the difficulty to store very large data sets generated by modern computer models. We propose a statistical model that aims at reproducing the data-generating mechanism of an ensemble of runs via a Stochastic Generator (SG) of global annual wind data. We introduce an evolutionary spectrum approach with spatially varying parameters based on large-scale geographical descriptors such as altitude to better account for different regimes across the Earth's orography. We consider a multi-step conditional likelihood approach to estimate the parameters that explicitly accounts for nonstationary features while also balancing memory storage and distributed computation. We apply the proposed model to more than 18 million points of yearly global wind speed. The proposed SG requires orders of magnitude less storage for generating surrogate ensemble members from wind than does creating additional wind fields from the climate model, even if an effective lossy data compression algorithm is applied to the simulation output.

Detecting stellar-wind bubbles through infrared arcs in H II regions

Science.gov (United States)

Mackey, Jonathan; Haworth, Thomas J.; Gvaramadze, Vasilii V.; Mohamed, Shazrene; Langer, Norbert; Harries, Tim J.

2016-02-01

Mid-infrared arcs of dust emission are often seen near ionizing stars within H II regions. A possible explanations for these arcs is that they could show the outer edges of asymmetric stellar wind bubbles. We use two-dimensional, radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of wind bubbles within H II regions around individual stars to predict the infrared emission properties of the dust within the H II region. We assume that dust and gas are dynamically well-coupled and that dust properties (composition, size distribution) are the same in the H II region as outside it, and that the wind bubble contains no dust. We post-process the simulations to make synthetic intensity maps at infrared wavebands using the torus code. We find that the outer edge of a wind bubble emits brightly at 24 μm through starlight absorbed by dust grains and re-radiated thermally in the infrared. This produces a bright arc of emission for slowly moving stars that have asymmetric wind bubbles, even for cases where there is no bow shock or any corresponding feature in tracers of gas emission. The 24 μm intensity decreases exponentially from the arc with increasing distance from the star because the dust temperature decreases with distance. The size distribution and composition of the dust grains has quantitative but not qualitative effects on our results. Despite the simplifications of our model, we find good qualitative agreement with observations of the H II region RCW 120, and can provide physical explanations for any quantitative differences. Our model produces an infrared arc with the same shape and size as the arc around CD -38°11636 in RCW 120, and with comparable brightness. This suggests that infrared arcs around O stars in H II regions may be revealing the extent of stellar wind bubbles, although we have not excluded other explanations.

High-resolution numerical simulation of summer wind field comparing WRF boundary-layer parametrizations over complex Arctic topography: case study from central Spitsbergen

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Láska, K.; Chládová, Zuzana; Hošek, Jiří

2017-01-01

Roč. 26, č. 4 (2017), s. 391-408 ISSN 0941-2948 Institutional support: RVO:68378289 Keywords : surface wind field * model evaluation * topographic effect * circulation pattern * Svalbard Subject RIV: DG - Athmosphere Sciences, Meteorology OBOR OECD: Meteorology and atmospheric sciences Impact factor: 1.989, year: 2016 http://www.schweizerbart.de/papers/metz/detail/prepub/87659/High_resolution_numerical_simulation_of_summer_wind_field_comparing_WRF_boundary_layer_parametrizations_over_complex_Arctic_topography_case_study_from_central_Spitsbergen

Non-Economic Obstacles to Wind Deployment: Issues and Regional Differences (Presentation)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baring-Gould, I.

2014-05-01

This presentation provides an overview of national obstacles to wind deployment, with regional assessments. A special mention of offshore projects and distributed wind projects is provided. Detailed maps examine baseline capacity, military and flight radar, golden and bald eagle habitat, bat habitat, whooping crane habitat, and public lands. Regional deployment challenges are also discussed.

Modulated Field Synchronous Generator for Wind Turbines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Petru Chioncel

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a modern electromechanical conversion systemsolution as the modulated field synchronous generator, offering on theone hand, an output voltage with constant frequency in terms of speedvariation of the wind turbine and on the other hand an advantagepower / weight ratio due to the high frequency for which the magneticcircuit of the electric machine is sized. The mathematical model of the modulated field synchronous generator is implemented in MatLABmodeling language, highlighting the command structure on thetransistors bases of the inverter transistors, through which thefunctioning of the electric machine can be studied, especially in terms of the frequency of the delivered voltage.

Magnetic fields in the solar system planets, moons and solar wind interactions

CERN Document Server

Wicht, Johannes; Gilder, Stuart; Holschneider, Matthias

2018-01-01

This book addresses and reviews many of the still little understood questions related to the processes underlying planetary magnetic fields and their interaction with the solar wind. With focus on research carried out within the German Priority Program ”PlanetMag”, it also provides an overview of the most recent research in the field. Magnetic fields play an important role in making a planet habitable by protecting the environment from the solar wind. Without the geomagnetic field, for example, life on Earth as we know it would not be possible. And results from recent space missions to Mars and Venus strongly indicate that planetary magnetic fields play a vital role in preventing atmospheric erosion by the solar wind. However, very little is known about the underlying interaction between the solar wind and a planet’s magnetic field. The book takes a synergistic interdisciplinary approach that combines newly developed tools for data acquisition and analysis, computer simulations of planetary interiors an...

On the stringy nature of winding modes in noncommutative thermal field theories

CERN Document Server

Arcioni, G; Gomis, J P; Vázquez-Mozo, Miguel Angel; Gomis, Joaquim

2000-01-01

We show that thermal noncommutative field theories admit a version of `channel duality' reminiscent of open/closed string duality, where non-planar thermal loops can be replaced by an infinite tower of tree-level exchanges of effective fields. These effective fields resemble closed strings in three aspects: their mass spectrum is that of closed-string winding modes, their interaction vertices contain extra moduli, and they can be regarded as propagating in a higher-dimensional `bulk' space-time. In noncommutative models that can be embedded in a D-brane, we show the precise relation between the effective `winding fields' and closed strings propagating off the D-brane. The winding fields represent the coherent coupling of the infinite tower of closed-string oscillator states. We derive a sum rule that expresses this effective coupling in terms of the elementary couplings of closed strings to the D-brane. We furthermore clarify the relation between the effective propagating dimension of the winding fields and t...

Latitude dependence of the solar wind speed: Influence of the coronal magnetic field geometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pneuman, G.W.

1976-01-01

The dependence of solar wind speed on latitude as influenced by the magnetic field configuration of the inner corona is studied. It is found that in general, a dipolelike field geometry characteristic of a minimum-type corona tends to produce a solar wind speed distribution which increases with heliographic latitude, in accordance with observations. At very high coronal base densities and temperatures, however, this effect is minimal or even inverted. Physically, the field affects the wind speed through its area divergence, a larger divergence resulting in correspondingly lower speeds. During solar minimum, eclipse photographs suggest that the field divergence increases from pole to equator, a characteristic not apparent during solar maximum. Hence we expect the latitudinal increase in speed to be most pronounced at the minimum phase of solar activity

The influence of solar active region evolution on solar wind streams, coronal hole boundaries and geomagnetic storms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gold, R.E.; Dodson-Prince, H.W.; Hedeman, E.R.; Roelof, E.C.

1982-01-01

We have studied solar and interplanetary data by identification of the heliographic longitudes of the coronal source regions of high speed solar wind streams and by mapping the velocities measured near earth back to the sun using the approximation of constant radial velocity. Interplay of active regions and solar wind were studied

Offshore Wind Jobs and Economic Development Impacts in the United States: Four Regional Scenarios

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tegen, S. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Keyser, D. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Flores-Espino, F. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Miles, J. [James Madison Univ., Harrisonburg, VA (United States); Zammit, D. [James Madison Univ., Harrisonburg, VA (United States); Loomis, D. [Great Lakes Wind Network, Cleveland, OH (United States)

2015-02-01

This report uses the offshore wind Jobs and Economic Development Impacts (JEDI) model and provides four case studies of potential offshore deployment scenarios in different regions of the United States: the Southeast, the Great Lakes, the Gulf Coast, and the Mid-Atlantic. Researchers worked with developers and industry representatives in each region to create potential offshore wind deployment and supply chain growth scenarios, specific to their locations. These scenarios were used as inputs into the offshore JEDI model to estimate jobs and other gross economic impacts in each region.

Turbulent Flow Inside and Above a Wind Farm: A Wind-Tunnel Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leonardo P. Chamorro

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Wind-tunnel experiments were carried out to better understand boundary layer effects on the flow pattern inside and above a model wind farm under thermally neutral conditions. Cross-wire anemometry was used to characterize the turbulent flow structure at different locations around a 10 by 3 array of model wind turbines aligned with the mean flow and arranged in two different layouts (inter-turbine separation of 5 and 7 rotor diameters in the direction of the mean flow by 4 rotor diameters in its span. Results suggest that the turbulent flow can be characterized in two broad regions. The first, located below the turbine top tip height, has a direct effect on the performance of the turbines. In that region, the turbulent flow statistics appear to reach equilibrium as close as the third to fourth row of wind turbines for both layouts. In the second region, located right above the first one, the flow adjusts slowly. There, two layers can be identified: an internal boundary layer where the flow is affected by both the incoming wind and the wind turbines, and an equilibrium layer, where the flow is fully adjusted to the wind farm. An adjusted logarithmic velocity distribution is observed in the equilibrium layer starting from the sixth row of wind turbines. The effective surface roughness length induced by the wind farm is found to be higher than that predicted by some existing models. Momentum recovery and turbulence intensity are shown to be affected by the wind farm layout. Power spectra show that the signature of the tip vortices, in both streamwise and vertical velocity components, is highly affected by both the relative location in the wind farm and the wind farm layout.

Economic and environmental study for the wind power generation in the region of Bajio; Estudio economico y medio ambiental para la generacion de energia eolica en la region del Bajio

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Martinez Patino, Jesus; Hernandez Figueroa, Miguel A.; Ireta Moreno, Fernando [Universidad de Guanajuato, Campus Irapuato-Salamanca, Salamanca, Guanajuato (Mexico)]. E-mail: jesusmp23@salamanca.ugto.mx; mahf@salamanca.ugto.mx; fireta@salamanca.ugto.mx; Rubio Maya, Carlos; Galvan Gonzalez, Sergio Ricardo [Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, Morelia, Michoacan (Mexico)]. E-mail: rmaya@umich.mx; srgalvan@umich.mx

2010-11-15

The presented study is divided into two main issues for wind energy generation: the economical scope, and the environment. A comparison from different perspectives is made between both costs. The study is focused in the Mexico central region called Bajio, where the wind data is obtained. The usage of different types of wind turbines is planned to generate electricity, and a comparison is made between them in different aspects. An invest of 20 years is expected for this equip. While comparing the costs, the estimated by emissions of CO{sup 2} by kW/h generated (environmental cost), with these cost it is showed the quantities of CO{sup 2} that can be stopped of emitting to the atmosphere by the use of fossil fuels. The data encourages the use of renewable energy in relation with the wind potential in the region. This is how the presented study shows the options of decision making to implement and viability of the usage of wind turbines for the production of electric energy under the wind conditions provided by the Bajio region. [Spanish] El estudio que se presenta se divide en dos principales puntos para la generacion de energia eolica: el ambito economico y el medio ambiental. Se realiza un comparativo entre ambos costos desde diferentes perspectivas. El estudio se concentra en la region del Bajio donde se obtienen los datos del viento. Se plantea el uso de diversos tipos de aerogeneradores para la generacion de energia electrica comparandolos entre si en varios aspectos. Para estos equipos se tiene contemplada una inversion a 20 anos. En la comparativa de costos resalta el estimado por la emision de CO{sup 2} por kW/h generado (Costo medioambiental), con este costo se pone de manifiesto las cantidades de CO{sup 2} que se pueden dejar de enviar a la atmosfera por el uso de combustibles fosiles, los datos alientan el uso de la energia renovable en relacion tambien al potencial de viento que se tiene en la region. De esta manera, el estudio presentado en el trabajo

Numerical analysis of air pollution in a combined field of land/sea breeze and mountain/valley wind

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kitada, T.; Igarashi, K.; Owada, M.

1986-01-01

Air pollution in the presence of two types of local flows (i.e., land/sea breeze and mountain/valley wind) was studies by advection simulation of the cluster of hypothetical fluid particles, and transport/chemistry calculation employing a three-dimensional Eulerian model for 20 advected species and about 90 chemical reactions. Three-dimensional flow fields over the River Yahagi basin in Japan were estimated for 48 h using an objective method with routine wind observations. Those obtained showed characteristics of the combined local flows such that in the daytime sea breeze and valley wind tend to form one united flow with substantial wind velocity in the whole region and, in contrast, land breeze and mountain wind during the nighttime form two separated circulating flows with a clear weak-wind area between the two local flow regimes. The results of the advection simulation of fluid particles and the transport/chemistry calculation using those flows as inputs elucidated how the features found in the diurnally varying, complex local flows contribute to produce characteristic time-variations of the concentrations of both primary and secondary pollutants. Among others, dynamics of NO 2 , HNO 3 , PAN, O 3 , SO 2 , and SO 4 /sup =/ concentrations are discussed

Root region airfoil for wind turbine

Science.gov (United States)

Tangler, James L.; Somers, Dan M.

1995-01-01

A thick airfoil for the root region of the blade of a wind turbine. The airfoil has a thickness in a range from 24%-26% and a Reynolds number in a range from 1,000,000 to 1,800,000. The airfoil has a maximum lift coefficient of 1.4-1.6 that has minimum sensitivity to roughness effects.

Effects of Blade Boundary Layer Transition and Daytime Atmospheric Turbulence on Wind Turbine Performance Analyzed with Blade-Resolved Simulation and Field Data

Science.gov (United States)

Nandi, Tarak Nath

, ≈3 s) and sub-1P scale (changes in velocity vector inclination in the airfoil plane, modulated by eddy passage at longer time scales. Generator power is found to respond strongly to large-eddy wind modulations. The experimental data show that internal dynamics of blade boundary layer near the trailing edge is temporally modulated by the nonsteady external ABL flow that was measured at the leading edge, as well as blade generated turbulence motions. A blade boundary layer resolved CFD study of a GE 1.5MW wind turbine blade is carried out using a hybrid URANS/LES framework to quantify the influence of transition on the blade boundary layer dynamics and subsequent loadings, and also to predict the velocity magnitude data set measured by the trailing edge rakes in the experiment. A URANS based transition model is used as the near-wall model, and its ability to predict nonsteady boundary layer dynamics is assessed for flow over an oscillating airfoil exhibiting varying extents of nonsteady behavior. The CFD study shows that, at rated conditions, the transition and separation locations on the blade surface can be quite dynamic, but the transitional flow has negligible influence on the determination of the separation location and the overall pressure distribution at various blade sections, and subsequently the power output. But this conclusion should be accepted with caution for wind turbines running in off-design conditions (e.g. with significant yaw error, off-design pitch or rapid changes in pitch), where massive separation and dynamic stall may occur. Analysis of the near-blade flow field shows strong three dimensional flow in the inboard regions, which can possibly weaken the chordwise flow in the relatively outboard regions and make them more prone to separation. The trailing edge velocity profiles show qualitative resemblance with some specific cycles observed in the field experiment. The factors leading to the observed differences from the experimental data are

Final Project Report, Bristol Bay Native Corporation Wind and Hydroelectric Feasibility Study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vaught, Douglas J.

2007-03-31

The Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC) grant project focused on conducting nine wind resource studies in eight communities in the Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska and was administered as a collaborative effort between BBNC, the Alaska Energy Authority, Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, Nushagak Electric Cooperative (NEC), Naknek Electric Association (NEA), and several individual village utilities in the region. BBNC’s technical contact and the project manager for this study was Douglas Vaught, P.E., of V3 Energy, LLC, in Eagle River, Alaska. The Bristol Bay region of Alaska is comprised of 29 communities ranging in size from the hub community of Dillingham with a population of approximately 3,000 people, to a few Native Alaska villages that have a few tens of residents. Communities chosen for inclusion in this project were Dillingham, Naknek, Togiak, New Stuyahok, Kokhanok, Perryville, Clark’s Point, and Koliganek. Selection criteria for conduction of wind resource assessments in these communities included population and commercial activity, utility interest, predicted Class 3 or better wind resource, absence of other sources of renewable energy, and geographical coverage of the region. Beginning with the first meteorological tower installation in October 2003, wind resource studies were completed at all sites with at least one year, and as much as two and a half years, of data. In general, the study results are very promising for wind power development in the region with Class 6 winds measured in Kokhanok; Class 4 winds in New Stuyahok, Clark’s Point, and Koliganek; Class 3 winds in Dillingham, Naknek, and Togiak; and Class 2 winds in Perryville. Measured annual average wind speeds and wind power densities at the 30 meter level varied from a high of 7.87 meters per second and 702 watts per square meter in Kokhanok (Class 6 winds), to a low of 4.60 meters per second and 185 watts per square meter in Perryville (Class 2 winds).

Modeling and analysis of solar wind generated contributions to the near-Earth magnetic field

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vennerstrøm, Susanne; Moretto, T.; Rastatter, L.

2006-01-01

Solar wind generated magnetic disturbances are currently one of the major obstacles for improving the accuracy in the determination of the magnetic field due to sources internal to the Earth. In the present study a global MHD model of solar wind magnetosphere interaction is used to obtain...... a physically consistent, divergence-free model of ionospheric, field-aligned and magnetospheric currents in a realistic magnetospheric geometry. The magnetic field near the Earth due to these currents is analyzed by estimating and comparing the contributions from the various parts of the system, with the aim...... of identifying the most important aspects of the solar wind disturbances in an internal field modeling context. The contribution from the distant magnetospheric currents is found to consist of two, mainly opposing, contributions from respectively the dayside magnetopause currents and the cross-tail current...

Hybrid Model of Inhomogeneous Solar Wind Plasma Heating by Alfven Wave Spectrum: Parametric Studies

Science.gov (United States)

Ofman, L.

2010-01-01

Observations of the solar wind plasma at 0.3 AU and beyond show that a turbulent spectrum of magnetic fluctuations is present. Remote sensing observations of the corona indicate that heavy ions are hotter than protons and their temperature is anisotropic (T(sub perpindicular / T(sub parallel) >> 1). We study the heating and the acceleration of multi-ion plasma in the solar wind by a turbulent spectrum of Alfvenic fluctuations using a 2-D hybrid numerical model. In the hybrid model the protons and heavy ions are treated kinetically as particles, while the electrons are included as neutralizing background fluid. This is the first two-dimensional hybrid parametric study of the solar wind plasma that includes an input turbulent wave spectrum guided by observation with inhomogeneous background density. We also investigate the effects of He++ ion beams in the inhomogeneous background plasma density on the heating of the solar wind plasma. The 2-D hybrid model treats parallel and oblique waves, together with cross-field inhomogeneity, self-consistently. We investigate the parametric dependence of the perpendicular heating, and the temperature anisotropy in the H+-He++ solar wind plasma. It was found that the scaling of the magnetic fluctuations power spectrum steepens in the higher-density regions, and the heating is channeled to these regions from the surrounding lower-density plasma due to wave refraction. The model parameters are applicable to the expected solar wind conditions at about 10 solar radii.

Aleutian Pribilof Islands Wind Energy Feasibility Study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bruce A. Wright

2012-03-27

Under this project, the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association (APIA) conducted wind feasibility studies for Adak, False Pass, Nikolski, Sand Point and St. George. The DOE funds were also be used to continue APIA's role as project coordinator, to expand the communication network quality between all participants and with other wind interest groups in the state and to provide continued education and training opportunities for regional participants. This DOE project began 09/01/2005. We completed the economic and technical feasibility studies for Adak. These were funded by the Alaska Energy Authority. Both wind and hydro appear to be viable renewable energy options for Adak. In False Pass the wind resource is generally good but the site has high turbulence. This would require special care with turbine selection and operations. False Pass may be more suitable for a tidal project. APIA is funded to complete a False Pass tidal feasibility study in 2012. Nikolski has superb potential for wind power development with Class 7 wind power density, moderate wind shear, bi-directional winds and low turbulence. APIA secured nearly $1M from the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service Assistance to Rural Communities with Extremely High Energy Costs to install a 65kW wind turbine. The measured average power density and wind speed at Sand Point measured at 20m (66ft), are 424 W/m2 and 6.7 m/s (14.9 mph) respectively. Two 500kW Vestas turbines were installed and when fully integrated in 2012 are expected to provide a cost effective and clean source of electricity, reduce overall diesel fuel consumption estimated at 130,000 gallons/year and decrease air emissions associated with the consumption of diesel fuel. St. George Island has a Class 7 wind resource, which is superior for wind power development. The current strategy, led by Alaska Energy Authority, is to upgrade the St. George electrical distribution system and power plant. Avian studies in Nikolski

A Habitat-based Wind-Wildlife Collision Model with Application to the Upper Great Plains Region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Forcey, Greg, M.

2012-08-28

Most previous studies on collision impacts at wind facilities have taken place at the site-specific level and have only examined small-scale influences on mortality. In this study, we examine landscape-level influences using a hierarchical spatial model combined with existing datasets and life history knowledge for: Horned Lark, Red-eyed Vireo, Mallard, American Avocet, Golden Eagle, Whooping Crane, red bat, silver-haired bat, and hoary bat. These species were modeled in the central United States within Bird Conservation Regions 11, 17, 18, and 19. For the bird species, we modeled bird abundance from existing datasets as a function of habitat variables known to be preferred by each species to develop a relative abundance prediction for each species. For bats, there are no existing abundance datasets so we identified preferred habitat in the landscape for each species and assumed that greater amounts of preferred habitat would equate to greater abundance of bats. The abundance predictions for bird and bats were modeled with additional exposure factors known to influence collisions such as visibility, wind, temperature, precipitation, topography, and behavior to form a final mapped output of predicted collision risk within the study region. We reviewed published mortality studies from wind farms in our study region and collected data on reported mortality of our focal species to compare to our modeled predictions. We performed a sensitivity analysis evaluating model performance of 6 different scenarios where habitat and exposure factors were weighted differently. We compared the model performance in each scenario by evaluating observed data vs. our model predictions using spearmans rank correlations. Horned Lark collision risk was predicted to be highest in the northwestern and west-central portions of the study region with lower risk predicted elsewhere. Red-eyed Vireo collision risk was predicted to be the highest in the eastern portions of the study region and in

IMPER: Characterization of the wind field over a large wind turbine rotor - final report; Improved performance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schmidt Paulsen, U.; Wagner, R.

2012-01-15

A modern wind turbine rotor with a contemporary rotor size would easily with the tips penetrate the air between 116 m and 30 m and herby experience effects of different wind. With current rules on power performance measurements such as IEC 61400-121 the reference wind speed is measured at hub height, an oversimplification of the wind energy power over the rotor disk area is carried out. The project comprised a number of innovative and coordinated measurements on a full scale turbine with remote sensing technology and simulations on a 500 kW wind turbine for the effects of wind field characterization. The objective with the present report is to give a short overview of the different experiments carried out and results obtained within the final phase of this project. (Author)

An investigation into thermal comfort and residential thermal environment in an intertropical sub-Saharan Africa region: Field study report during the Harmattan season in Cameroon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Djongyang, Noel; Tchinda, Rene

2010-01-01

Investigations on thermal comfort have attracted authors for years throughout the world and the most important findings are now the basis of international thermal comfort standards. There is little information available concerning occupant comfort and residential thermal environment in the intertropical sub-Saharan Africa. Thus the purpose for this study is to conduct a field study on comfort and residential thermal environments in a typical intertropical climatic region. A field survey has been conducted during the Harmattan season in two cities from the two climatic regions of Cameroon concerned by that wind. Specific study objectives were to evaluate and characterize some thermal perceptions of occupants in their residence, compare observed and predicted percent of dissatisfied, and discern differences between the study area and other climate zones where similar studies have been performed. It was found that the thermoneutral temperatures in both climatic regions range from 24.69 deg. C to 27.32 deg. C and, in traditional living room, it differs from that of modern living room with approximately 1 deg. C.

Application of a regional hurricane wind risk forecasting model for wood-frame houses.

Science.gov (United States)

Jain, Vineet Kumar; Davidson, Rachel Ann

2007-02-01

Hurricane wind risk in a region changes over time due to changes in the number, type, locations, vulnerability, and value of buildings. A model was developed to quantitatively estimate changes over time in hurricane wind risk to wood-frame houses (defined in terms of potential for direct economic loss), and to estimate how different factors, such as building code changes and population growth, contribute to that change. The model, which is implemented in a simulation, produces a probability distribution of direct economic losses for each census tract in the study region at each time step in the specified time horizon. By changing parameter values and rerunning the analysis, the effects of different changes in the built environment on the hurricane risk trends can be estimated and the relative effectiveness of hypothetical mitigation strategies can be evaluated. Using a case study application for wood-frame houses in selected counties in North Carolina from 2000 to 2020, this article demonstrates how the hurricane wind risk forecasting model can be used: (1) to provide insight into the dynamics of regional hurricane wind risk-the total change in risk over time and the relative contribution of different factors to that change, and (2) to support mitigation planning. Insights from the case study include, for example, that the many factors contributing to hurricane wind risk for wood-frame houses interact in a way that is difficult to predict a priori, and that in the case study, the reduction in hurricane losses due to vulnerability changes (e.g., building code changes) is approximately equal to the increase in losses due to building inventory growth. The potential for the model to support risk communication is also discussed.

Wind Tunnel Tests for Wind Pressure Distribution on Gable Roof Buildings

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Gable roof buildings are widely used in industrial buildings. Based on wind tunnel tests with rigid models, wind pressure distributions on gable roof buildings with different aspect ratios were measured simultaneously. Some characteristics of the measured wind pressure field on the surfaces of the models were analyzed, including mean wind pressure, fluctuating wind pressure, peak negative wind pressure, and characteristics of proper orthogonal decomposition results of the measured wind pressure field. The results show that extremely high local suctions often occur in the leading edges of longitudinal wall and windward roof, roof corner, and roof ridge which are the severe damaged locations under strong wind. The aspect ratio of building has a certain effect on the mean wind pressure coefficients, and the effect relates to wind attack angle. Compared with experimental results, the region division of roof corner and roof ridge from AIJ2004 is more reasonable than those from CECS102:2002 and MBMA2006.The contributions of the first several eigenvectors to the overall wind pressure distributions become much bigger. The investigation can offer some basic understanding for estimating wind load distribution on gable roof buildings and facilitate wind-resistant design of cladding components and their connections considering wind load path. PMID:24082851

Meso-beta scale perturbations of the wind field by thunderstorm cells

Science.gov (United States)

Ulanski, S. L.; Heymsfield, G. M.

1986-01-01

Data from the high density storm-scale rawinsonde network of the Severe Environmental Storms and Mesoscale Experiment revealed temporal and spatial changes in the divergence fields of the troposphere in response to severe storm evolution on May 2, 1979; these changes were detectable on the meso-beta scale. This unique set of data was subsequently used to study the evolution of the wind, divergence and vertical motion fields in the presence of intense convection. Mid- and upper-tropospheric divergence was superimposed over low-level convergence. The divergence, which has a maximum value of .0004/s, occurred 75 to 100 km upwind as well as over the tornadic cells. To the south of the storm cells, the kinematic pattern was in reverse, upper level convergence was superimposed over low-level divergence. A vertical motion doublet was found to ascend over the squall line and descend about 70 km south of the squall line. It is suggested that the following effects are accountable for the nature of the kinematic fields: (1) blocking of tropospheric environmental flow by the storm cells, (2) anvil outflows, particularly from the tornadic cells, and (3) divergence from the exit region of the jet stream.

Strongly-sheared wind-forced currents in the nearshore regions of the central Southern California Bight

Science.gov (United States)

Noble, Marlene A.; Rosenberger, Kurt; Robertson, George L.

2015-01-01

Contrary to many previous reports, winds do drive currents along the shelf in the central portion of the Southern California Bight (SCB). Winds off Huntington Beach CA are the dominant forcing for currents over the nearshore region of the shelf (water depths less than 20 m). Winds control about 50–70% of the energy in nearshore alongshelf surface currents. The wind-driven current amplitudes are also anomalously high. For a relatively weak 1 dyne/cm2 wind stress, the alongshelf surface current amplitudes in this region can reach 80 cm/s or more. Mid-depth current amplitudes for the same wind stress are around 30–40 cm/s. These wind-driven surface current amplitudes are much larger than previously measured over other nearshore shelf regions, perhaps because this program is one of the few that measured currents within a meter of the surface. The near-bed cross-shelf currents over the nearshore region of the Huntington Beach shelf have an Ekman response to winds in that they upwell (downwell) for down (up) coast winds. This response disappears further offshore. Hence, there is upwelling in the SCB, but it does not occur across the entire shelf. Subthermocline water in the nearshore region that may contain nutrients and plankton move onshore when winds are southeastward, but subthermocline water over the shelf break is not transported to the beach. The currents over the outer shelf are not predominately controlled by winds, consistent with previous reports. Instead, they are mainly driven by cross-shelf pressure gradients that are independent of local wind stress.

Surface wind mixing in the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS)

Science.gov (United States)

Robertson, Robin; Hartlipp, Paul

2017-12-01

Mixing at the ocean surface is key for atmosphere-ocean interactions and the distribution of heat, energy, and gases in the upper ocean. Winds are the primary force for surface mixing. To properly simulate upper ocean dynamics and the flux of these quantities within the upper ocean, models must reproduce mixing in the upper ocean. To evaluate the performance of the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) in replicating the surface mixing, the results of four different vertical mixing parameterizations were compared against observations, using the surface mixed layer depth, the temperature fields, and observed diffusivities for comparisons. The vertical mixing parameterizations investigated were Mellor- Yamada 2.5 level turbulent closure (MY), Large- McWilliams- Doney Kpp (LMD), Nakanishi- Niino (NN), and the generic length scale (GLS) schemes. This was done for one temperate site in deep water in the Eastern Pacific and three shallow water sites in the Baltic Sea. The model reproduced the surface mixed layer depth reasonably well for all sites; however, the temperature fields were reproduced well for the deep site, but not for the shallow Baltic Sea sites. In the Baltic Sea, the models overmixed the water column after a few days. Vertical temperature diffusivities were higher than those observed and did not show the temporal fluctuations present in the observations. The best performance was by NN and MY; however, MY became unstable in two of the shallow simulations with high winds. The performance of GLS nearly as good as NN and MY. LMD had the poorest performance as it generated temperature diffusivities that were too high and induced too much mixing. Further observational comparisons are needed to evaluate the effects of different stratification and wind conditions and the limitations on the vertical mixing parameterizations.

Autonomous Voltage Security Regions to Prevent Cascading Trip Faults in Wind Turbine Generators

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Niu, Tao; Guo, Qinglai; Sun, Hongbin

2016-01-01

Cascading trip faults in large-scale wind power centralized integration areas bring new challenges to the secure operation of power systems. In order to deal with the complexity of voltage security regions and the computation difficulty, this paper proposes an autonomous voltage security region...... wind farm, an AVSR is determined to guarantee the normal operation of each wind turbine generator (WTG), while in the control center, each region is designed in order to guarantee secure operation both under normal conditions and after an N-1 contingency. A real system in Northern China was used...

Gap winds and their effects on regional oceanography Part II: Kodiak Island, Alaska

Science.gov (United States)

Ladd, Carol; Cheng, Wei; Salo, Sigrid

2016-10-01

Frequent gap winds, defined here as offshore-directed flow channeled through mountain gaps, have been observed near Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). Gap winds from the Iliamna Lake gap were investigated using QuikSCAT wind data. The influence of these wind events on the regional ocean was examined using satellite and in situ data combined with Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) model runs. Gap winds influence the entire shelf width (> 200 km) northeast of Kodiak Island and extend an additional 150 km off-shelf. Due to strong gradients in the along-shelf direction, they can result in vertical velocities in the ocean of over 20 m d-1 due to Ekman pumping. The wind events also disrupt flow of the Alaska Coastal Current (ACC), resulting in decreased flow down Shelikof Strait and increased velocities on the outer shelf. This disruption of the ACC has implications for freshwater transport into the Bering Sea. The oceanographic response to gap winds may influence the survival of larval fishes as Arrowtooth Flounder recruitment is negatively correlated with the interannual frequency of gap-wind events, and Pacific Cod recruitment is positively correlated. The frequency of offshore directed winds exhibits a strong seasonal cycle averaging 7 days per month during winter and 2 days per month during summer. Interannual variability is correlated with the Pacific North America Index and shows a linear trend, increasing by 1.35 days per year. An accompanying paper discusses part I of our study (Ladd and Cheng, 2016) focusing on gap-wind events flowing out of Cross Sound in the eastern GOA.

Remote Sensing Data in Wind Velocity Field Modelling: a Case Study from the Sudetes (SW Poland)

Science.gov (United States)

Jancewicz, Kacper

2014-06-01

The phenomena of wind-field deformation above complex (mountainous) terrain is a popular subject of research related to numerical modelling using GIS techniques. This type of modelling requires, as input data, information on terrain roughness and a digital terrain/elevation model. This information may be provided by remote sensing data. Consequently, its accuracy and spatial resolution may affect the results of modelling. This paper represents an attempt to conduct wind-field modelling in the area of the Śnieżnik Massif (Eastern Sudetes). The modelling process was conducted in WindStation 2.0.10 software (using the computable fluid dynamics solver Canyon). Two different elevation models were used: the Global Land Survey Digital Elevation Model (GLS DEM) and Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED) Level 2. The terrain roughness raster was generated on the basis of Corine Land Cover 2006 (CLC 2006) data. The output data were post-processed in ArcInfo 9.3.1 software to achieve a high-quality cartographic presentation. Experimental modelling was conducted for situations from 26 November 2011, 25 May 2012, and 26 May 2012, based on a limited number of field measurements and using parameters of the atmosphere boundary layer derived from the aerological surveys provided by the closest meteorological stations. The model was run in a 100-m and 250-m spatial resolution. In order to verify the model's performance, leave-one-out cross-validation was used. The calculated indices allowed for a comparison with results of former studies pertaining to WindStation's performance. The experiment demonstrated very subtle differences between results in using DTED or GLS DEM elevation data. Additionally, CLC 2006 roughness data provided more noticeable improvements in the model's performance, but only in the resolution corresponding to the original roughness data. The best input data configuration resulted in the following mean values of error measure: root mean squared error of velocity

THE WIND EMPLOYMENT IN SPAIN (1995-2010: A THEORETICAL APPROXIMATION APPLIED TO THE REGION OF GALICIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rosa Maria Regueiro Ferreira

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The development of the renewable energies, and especially of the wind power, in the last decades has stayed out of any discussion. The advantages associated with the energy of the odd wind have considered in occasions authentic information that they them should corroborate. For example, about the streghness of creating jobs, there do not exist official statistics that gather the dimension of the created employment, without forgetting that the field of the energy stands out for being intensive in the capital. In this paper, there is realized an analysis of the different bibliographical sources relative to the generation of employment in the wind sector in Spain, establishing a few margins of the creation of the same one for categories for the region of Galicia, in the period (1995-2010.

Study on magnetic field distribution in superconducting magnetic systems with account of magnetization of a superconducting winding

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shakhtarin, V.N.; Koshurnikov, E.K.

1977-01-01

A method for investigating a magnetic field in a superconducting magnetic system with an allowance for magnetization of the superconducting winding material is described. To find the field, use was made of the network method for solving a nonlinear differential equation for the scalar magnetic potential of the magnetization field with adjustment of the boundary conditions by the boundary relaxation method. It was assumed that the solenoid did not pass into the normal state, and there were no flow jumps. The calculated dependences for the magnetization field of a superconducting solenoid with an inner diameter of 43 mm, an outer diameter of 138 mm, and a winding of 159 mm length are presented. The solenoid is wound with a 37-strand niobium-titanium wire. The magnetization field gradient in the area of the geometrical centre with a magnetic field strength of 43 kOe was equal to 1 Oe/cm, this meaning that within a sphere of 1 cm radius the inhomogeneity of the magnetization field was 2.5 x 10 -5

Wind and Photovoltaic Large-Scale Regional Models for hourly production evaluation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marinelli, Mattia; Maule, Petr; Hahmann, Andrea N.

2015-01-01

This work presents two large-scale regional models used for the evaluation of normalized power output from wind turbines and photovoltaic power plants on a European regional scale. The models give an estimate of renewable production on a regional scale with 1 h resolution, starting from a mesosca...... of the transmission system, especially regarding the cross-border power flows. The tuning of these regional models is done using historical meteorological data acquired on a per-country basis and using publicly available data of installed capacity.......This work presents two large-scale regional models used for the evaluation of normalized power output from wind turbines and photovoltaic power plants on a European regional scale. The models give an estimate of renewable production on a regional scale with 1 h resolution, starting from a mesoscale...

Why fast solar wind originates from slowly expanding coronal flux tubes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Y.M.; Sheeley, N.R. Jr.

1991-01-01

Empirical studies indicate that the solar wind speed at earth is inversely correlated with the divergence rate of the coronal magnetic field. It is shown that this result is consistent with simple wind acceleration models involving Alfven waves, provided that the wave energy flux at the coronal base is taken to be roughly constant within open field regions. 9 refs

Analysis of wind speed distributions: Wind distribution function derived from minimum cross entropy principles as better alternative to Weibull function

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kantar, Yeliz Mert; Usta, Ilhan

2008-01-01

In this study, the minimum cross entropy (MinxEnt) principle is applied for the first time to the wind energy field. This principle allows the inclusion of previous information of a wind speed distribution and covers the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) principle, which is also discussed by Li and Li and Ramirez as special cases in their wind power study. The MinxEnt probability density function (pdf) derived from the MinxEnt principle are used to determine the diurnal, monthly, seasonal and annual wind speed distributions. A comparison between MinxEnt pdfs defined on the basis of the MinxEnt principle and the Weibull pdf on wind speed data, which are taken from different sources and measured in various regions, is conducted. The wind power densities of the considered regions obtained from Weibull and MinxEnt pdfs are also compared. The results indicate that the pdfs derived from the MinxEnt principle fit better to a variety of measured wind speed data than the conventionally applied empirical Weibull pdf. Therefore, it is shown that the MinxEnt principle can be used as an alternative method to estimate both wind distribution and wind power accurately

Assimilating concentration observations for transport and dispersion modeling in a meandering wind field

Science.gov (United States)

Haupt, Sue Ellen; Beyer-Lout, Anke; Long, Kerrie J.; Young, George S.

Assimilating concentration data into an atmospheric transport and dispersion model can provide information to improve downwind concentration forecasts. The forecast model is typically a one-way coupled set of equations: the meteorological equations impact the concentration, but the concentration does not generally affect the meteorological field. Thus, indirect methods of using concentration data to influence the meteorological variables are required. The problem studied here involves a simple wind field forcing Gaussian dispersion. Two methods of assimilating concentration data to infer the wind direction are demonstrated. The first method is Lagrangian in nature and treats the puff as an entity using feature extraction coupled with nudging. The second method is an Eulerian field approach akin to traditional variational approaches, but minimizes the error by using a genetic algorithm (GA) to directly optimize the match between observations and predictions. Both methods show success at inferring the wind field. The GA-variational method, however, is more accurate but requires more computational time. Dynamic assimilation of a continuous release modeled by a Gaussian plume is also demonstrated using the genetic algorithm approach.

ESTABLISHING A CONNECTION BETWEEN ACTIVE REGION OUTFLOWS AND THE SOLAR WIND: ABUNDANCE MEASUREMENTS WITH EIS/HINODE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brooks, David H.; Warren, Harry P.

2011-01-01

One of the most interesting discoveries from Hinode is the presence of persistent high-temperature high-speed outflows from the edges of active regions (ARs). EUV imaging spectrometer (EIS) measurements indicate that the outflows reach velocities of 50 km s -1 with spectral line asymmetries approaching 200 km s -1 . It has been suggested that these outflows may lie on open field lines that connect to the heliosphere, and that they could potentially be a significant source of the slow speed solar wind. A direct link has been difficult to establish, however. We use EIS measurements of spectral line intensities that are sensitive to changes in the relative abundance of Si and S as a result of the first ionization potential (FIP) effect, to measure the chemical composition in the outflow regions of AR 10978 over a 5 day period in 2007 December. We find that Si is always enhanced over S by a factor of 3-4. This is generally consistent with the enhancement factor of low FIP elements measured in situ in the slow solar wind by non-spectroscopic methods. Plasma with a slow wind-like composition was therefore flowing from the edge of the AR for at least 5 days. Furthermore, on December 10 and 11, when the outflow from the western side was favorably oriented in the Earth direction, the Si/S ratio was found to match the value measured a few days later by the Advanced Composition Explorer/Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer. These results provide strong observational evidence for a direct connection between the solar wind, and the coronal plasma in the outflow regions.

Regional hydrogen roadmap. Project development framework for the Sahara Wind Project

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Benhamou, Khalid [Sahara Wind Inc., Rabat (Morocco); Arbaoui, Abdelaziz [Ecole National Superieure des Arts et Metiers ENSAM Meknes (Morocco); Loudiyi, Khalid [Al Akhawayn Univ. (Morocco); Ould Mustapha, Sidi Mohamed [Nouakchott Univ. (Mauritania). Faculte des Sciences et Techniques

2010-07-01

The trade winds that blow along the Atlantic coast from Morocco to Senegal represent one of the the largest and most productive wind potentials available on earth. Because of the erratic nature of winds however, wind electricity cannot be integrated locally on any significant scale, unless mechanisms are developed for storing these intermittent renewable energies. Developing distributed wind energy solutions feeding into smaller electricity markets are essential for solving energy access issues and enabling the development of a local, viable renewable energy industry. These may be critical to address the region's economic challenges currently under pressure from Sub-Saharan migrant populations. Windelectrolysis for the production of hydrogen can be used in grid stabilization, as power storage, fuel or chemical feedstock in specific industries. The objective of the NATO SfP 'Sahara Trade Winds to Hydrogen' project is to support the region's universities through an applied research framework in partnership with industries where electrolysis applications are relevant. By powering two university campuses in Morocco and Mauritania with small grid connected wind turbines and 30 kW electrolyzers generating hydrogen for power back-up as part of ''green campus concepts'' we demonstrated that wind-electrolysis for the production of hydrogen could absorb larger quantities of cheap generated wind electricity in order to maximize renewable energy uptakes within the regions weaker grid infrastructures. Creating synergies with local industries to tap into a widely available renewable energy source opens new possibilities for end users such as utilities or mining industries when processing raw minerals, whose exports generates key incomes in regions most exposed to desertification and climate change issue. Initiated by Sahara Wind Inc. a company from the private sector, along with the Al Akhawayn University, the Ecole Nationale Superieure

Measured and modelled local wind field over a frozen lake in a mountainous area

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smedman, A.S.; Bergstroem, H.; Hoegstroem, U. [Uppsala Univ. (Sweden). Dept. of Meteorology

1996-03-01

The study is a follow-up of a previous paper and concentrates on two very characteristic flow regimes: forced channeling, where the driving geostrophic wind and the lake axis are roughly aligned, and pressure-driven channeling or gap winds, which are characterized by a geostrophic wind direction more or less perpendicular to the lake axis. Both situations produce winds along the main axis of the lake. In the forced channeling case the wind direction varies insignificantly with height and the wind speed increases monotonically with height. The gap wind flow, which can give supergeostrophic speed, is restricted to the lowest 500 m above the lake surface, drops in speed to near zero just above that layer, changing to an across-wind direction higher up. Gap winds are found to require slightly stable stratification for their existence; strong stability forces the flow to go round the mountains rather than over, and neutral conditions give a turbulent wake in the lee of the mountains. The gap wind starts at any occasion as a sudden warm front approaching from either of the two along-lake directions (115 or 295 degrees). It is argued that the relative warmth of the `gap wind air` is due to air originally flowing at mountain top height across the lake axis being gradually turned and accelerated along the synoptic pressure gradient while descending. The strongly sheared layer at the top of the gap wind region is dynamically highly unstable, giving rise to vertically coherent variations in wind speed and direction which appear to be triggered by gravity waves. When the driving geostrophic wind is high enough, the disturbed region reaches all the way down to the ground surface. Then periods with strong turbulence and low mean wind alternate with pronounced gap winds on typically a 10 minute scale. 11 refs, 18 figs

Observational and numerical study of the Vardaris wind regime in northern Greece

Science.gov (United States)

Koletsis, I.; Giannaros, T. M.; Lagouvardos, K.; Kotroni, V.

2016-05-01

The Axios Valley, located in central-northern Greece, is surrounded by complex topography that plays a significant role in the modification of wind flow, both in terms of speed and direction. The characteristic wind regime of this valley is Vardaris, a northwesterly wind that prevails in this region, especially during the cold period of the year. Vardaris is well known for its consistent direction and high intensity, as well as for the effective advection of cold and dry air, often resulting to significant damages in local infrastructures and agriculture. A field campaign under the name AXIOS took place during the period from November 2007 through May 2008 in order to examine this particular wind flow. The analysis of the in situ observational data, which was funded by the research program THESPIA-KRIPIS, showed that topography plays a key role in intensifying Vardaris, generating gusts that approximated 30 m s- 1 during the experimental period. The air temperature and humidity fields were also found to be significantly influenced. In addition to the observational study, an intense Vardaris episode was simulated with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model at high horizontal resolution. Results revealed that the model was able to reproduce the favorable environmental conditions that lead to Vardaris occurrence, providing a useful insight on the physical mechanisms explaining its structure.

Wind Atlas of Bay of Bengal with Satellite Wind Measurement

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nadi, Navila Rahman

footstep towards offshore wind energy analysis for this region. Generally, it is difficult to find offshore wind data relative to the wind turbine hub heights, therefore a starting point is necessary to identify the possible wind power density of the region. In such scenario, Synthetic aperture radars (SAR......The objective of this study is to obtain appropriate offshore location in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh for further development of wind energy. Through analyzing the previous published works, no offshore wind energy estimation has been found here. That is why, this study can be claimed as the first......) have proven useful. In this study, SAR based dataset- ENVISAT ASAR has been used for Wind Atlas generation. Furthermore, a comparative study has been performed with Global Wind Atlas (GWA) to determine a potential offshore wind farm. Additionally, the annual energy production of that offshore windfarm...

The singing comet 67P: utilizing fully kinetic simulations to study its interaction with the solar wind plasma

Science.gov (United States)

Deca, J.; Divin, A. V.; Horanyi, M.; Henri, P.

2016-12-01

We present preliminary results of the first 3-D fully kinetic and electromagnetic simulations of the solar wind interaction with 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at 3 AU, before the comet transitions into its high-activity phase. We focus on the global cometary environment and the electron-kinetic activity of the interaction. In addition to the background solar wind plasma flow, our model includes also plasma-driven ionization of cometary neutrals and collisional effects. We approximate mass loading of cold cometary oxygen and hydrogen using a hyperbolic relation with distance to the comet. We consider two primary cases: a weak outgassing comet (with the peak ion density 10x the solar wind density) and a moderately outgassing comet (with the peak ion density 50x the solar wind density). The weak comet is characterized by the formation of a narrow region containing a compressed solar wind (the density of the solar wind ion population is 3x the value far upstream of the comet) and a magnetic barrier ( 2x to 4x the interplanetary magnetic field). Blobs of plasma are detached continuously from this sheath region. Standing electromagnetic waves are excited in the cometary wake due to a strong anisotropy in the plasma pressure, as the density and the magnetic field magnitude are anti-correlated.The moderate mass-loading case shows more dynamics at the dayside region. The stagnation of the solar wind flow is accompanied by the formation of elongated density stripes, indicating the presence of a Rayleigh-Taylor instability. These density cavities are elongated in the direction of the magnetic field and encompass the dayside ionopause. To conclude, we believe that our results provide vital information to disentangle the observations made by the Rosetta spacecraft and compose a global solar wind - comet interaction model.

Wind Powering America's Regional Stakeholder Meetings and Priority State Reports: FY11 Summary

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2013-06-01

Beginning in 2010, DOE conducted an assessment of Wind Powering America (WPA) activities to determine whether the methods the department had used to help grow the wind industry to provide 2% of the nation's electrical energy should be the same methods used to achieve 20% of the nation's energy from wind (as described in the report 20% Wind Energy by 2030: Increasing Wind Energy's Contribution to U.S. Electricity Supply). After the assessment, it was determined that the initiative's state-based activities should be phased out as part of a shift to regional-based approaches. To assist with this transition, WPA hosted a series of 1-day regional meetings at six strategic locations around the country and a single teleconference for island states, U.S. territories, and remote communities. This report summarizes the results of the inaugural regional meetings and the state reports with a focus on ongoing wind deployment barriers in each region.

Wind Powering America's Regional Stakeholder Meetings and Priority State Reports: FY11 Summary

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baring-Gould, Ian [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2013-06-01

Beginning in 2010, DOE conducted an assessment of Wind Powering America (WPA) activities to determine whether the methods the department had used to help grow the wind industry to provide 2% of the nation's electrical energy should be the same methods used to achieve 20% of the nation's energy from wind (as described in the report 20% Wind Energy by 2030: Increasing Wind Energy's Contribution toU.S. Electricity Supply). After the assessment, it was determined that the initiative's state-based activities should be phased out as part of a shift to regional-based approaches. To assist with this transition, WPA hosted a series of 1-day regional meetings at six strategic locations around the country and a single teleconference for island states, U.S. territories, and remote communities.This report summarizes the results of the inaugural regional meetings and the state reports with a focus on ongoing wind deployment barriers in each region.

Impacts of climate change on wind energy resources in France: a regionalization study; Impacts du changement climatique sur le potentiel eolien en France: une etude de regionalisation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Najac, J.

2008-11-15

In this work, we study the impact of climate change on surface winds in France and draw conclusions concerning wind energy resources. Because of their coarse spatial resolution, climate models cannot properly reproduce the spatial variability of surface winds. Thus, 2 down-scaling methods are developed in order to regionalize an ensemble of climate scenarios: a statistical method based on weather typing and a statistic-dynamical method that resorts to high resolution mesoscale modelling. By 2050, significant but relatively small changes are depicted with, in particular, a decrease of the wind speed in the southern and an increase in the northern regions of France. The use of other down-scaling methods enables us to study several uncertainty sources: it appears that most of the uncertainty is due to the climate models. (author)

Regional-Scale Surface Magnetic Fields and Proton Fluxes to Mercury's Surface from Proton-Reflection Magnetometry

Science.gov (United States)

Winslow, R. M.; Johnson, C. L.; Anderson, B. J.; Gershman, D. J.; Raines, J. M.; Lillis, R. J.; Korth, H.; Slavin, J. A.; Solomon, S. C.; Zurbuchen, T.

2014-12-01

The application of a recently developed proton-reflection magnetometry technique to MESSENGER spacecraft observations at Mercury has yielded two significant findings. First, loss-cone observations directly confirm particle precipitation to Mercury's surface and indicate that solar wind plasma persistently bombards the planet not only in the magnetic cusp regions but over a large fraction of the southern hemisphere. Second, the inferred surface field strengths independently confirm the north-south asymmetry in Mercury's global magnetic field structure first documented from observations of magnetic equator crossings. Here we extend this work with 1.5 additional years of observations (i.e., to 2.5 years in all) to further probe Mercury's surface magnetic field and better resolve proton flux precipitation to the planet's surface. We map regions where proton loss cones are observed; these maps indicate regions where protons precipitate directly onto the surface. The augmentation of our data set over that used in our original study allows us to examine the proton loss cones in cells of dimension 10° latitude by 20° longitude in Mercury body-fixed coordinates. We observe a transition from double-sided to single-sided loss cones in the pitch-angle distributions; this transition marks the boundary between open and closed field lines. At the surface this boundary lies between 60° and 70°N. Our observations allow the estimation of surface magnetic field strengths in the northern cusp region and the calculation of incident proton fluxes to both hemispheres. In the northern cusp, our regional-scale observations are consistent with an offset dipole field and a dipole moment of 190 nT RM3, where RM is Mercury's radius, implying that any regional-scale variations in surface magnetic field strengths are either weak relative to the dipole field or occur at length scales smaller than the resolution of our observations (~300 km). From the global proton flux map (north of 40° S

Management of moderate wind energy coastal resources

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Karamanis, D.

2011-01-01

Research highlights: → Life cycle analysis reveals the viability of moderate wind fields utilization. → Wind turbine is the greenest electricity generator at a touristic site. → Wind parks should be collective applications of small hotel-apartments owners. -- Abstract: The feasibility of wind energy utilization at moderate wind fields was investigated for a typical touristic coastal site in Western Greece. Initially, the wind speed and direction as well as its availability, duration and diurnal variation were assessed. For an analysis period of eight years, the mean wind speed at ten meters was determined as 3.8 m s -1 with a small variation in monthly average wind speeds between 3.0 (January) and 4.4 m s -1 (October). The mean wind power density was less than 200 W m -2 at 10 m indicating the limiting suitability of the site for the usual renewable energy applications. However, life cycle analysis for wind turbine generators with lower cut-in, cut-out, and rated speeds revealed that the energy yield ratio can reach a value of six for a service life of 20 years while the energy pay-back period can be 3 years with 33 kt CO 2 -e of avoided greenhouse emissions. Therefore, the recent technological turbine improvements make wind power viable even at moderate wind fields. Moreover, the study of electricity supply of typical small hotel-apartments in the region of Western Greece indicated that the installation of 300 wind turbine generators in these moderate wind fields would cover the total consumption during the open touristic period with profits during the rest of the year. According to these results, wind turbine generators are the 'greenest' way of generating electricity in touristic coastal sites, even of moderate wind speeds.

Performance of a prototype micro wind turbine in the manmade wind field from air conditioner of buildings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. H. Goh

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Harnessing waste energy from the manmade air fields of buildings presents a new area of renewable energy to explore. Due to the unpredictability of the natural wind, this study is to evaluate the practicality for harnessing waste energy from the air conditioner exhaust units which are a more constant and predictable source available in the buildings. A prototype of the micro wind turbine has been designed to minimize the negative effect of the exhaust sources. After the micro wind turbine was manufactured, the performance of the turbine was tested in the selected air conditioner exhaust unit. Increasing the rotor solidity and decreasing the resistance of the generator contribute to improved starting torque and decreased generator break in torque respectively in the design. The power generation of the micro wind turbine increases with an increase of the rotor speed. The 24-hour operation of the prototype presents an observation for both exhaust performance and power generation prediction when the prototype is mounted on the exhaust unit.

Formation of Heliospheric Arcs of Slow Solar Wind

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Higginson, A. K.; Zurbuchen, T. H. [Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States); Antiochos, S. K.; DeVore, C. R. [Heliophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States); Wyper, P. F., E-mail: aleida@umich.edu [Department of Mathematical Sciences, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE (United Kingdom)

2017-05-01

A major challenge in solar and heliospheric physics is understanding the origin and nature of the so-called slow solar wind. The Sun’s atmosphere is divided into magnetically open regions, known as coronal holes, where the plasma streams out freely and fills the solar system, and closed regions, where the plasma is confined to coronal loops. The boundary between these regions extends outward as the heliospheric current sheet (HCS). Measurements of plasma composition strongly imply that much of the slow wind consists of plasma from the closed corona that escapes onto open field lines, presumably by field-line opening or by interchange reconnection. Both of these processes are expected to release closed-field plasma into the solar wind within and immediately adjacent to the HCS. Mysteriously, however, slow wind with closed-field plasma composition is often observed in situ far from the HCS. We use high-resolution, three-dimensional, magnetohydrodynamic simulations to calculate the dynamics of a coronal hole with a geometry that includes a narrow corridor flanked by closed field and is driven by supergranule-like flows at the coronal-hole boundary. These dynamics produce giant arcs of closed-field plasma that originate at the open-closed boundary in the corona, but extend far from the HCS and span tens of degrees in latitude and longitude at Earth. We conclude that such structures can account for the long-puzzling slow-wind observations.

AN ANOMALOUS COMPOSITION IN SLOW SOLAR WIND AS A SIGNATURE OF MAGNETIC RECONNECTION IN ITS SOURCE REGION

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhao, L.; Landi, E.; Lepri, S. T.; Kocher, M.; Zurbuchen, T. H.; Fisk, L. A.; Raines, J. M., E-mail: lzh@umich.edu [Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States)

2017-01-01

In this paper, we study a subset of slow solar winds characterized by an anomalous charge state composition and ion temperatures compared to average solar wind distributions, and thus referred to as an “Outlier” wind. We find that although this wind is slower and denser than normal slow wind, it is accelerated from the same source regions (active regions and quiet-Sun regions) as the latter and its occurrence rate depends on the solar cycle. The defining property of the Outlier wind is that its charge state composition is the same as that of normal slow wind, with the only exception being a very large decrease in the abundance of fully charged species (He{sup 2+}, C{sup 6+}, N{sup 7+}, O{sup 8+}, Mg{sup 12+}), resulting in a significant depletion of the He and C element abundances. Based on these observations, we suggest three possible scenarios for the origin of this wind: (1) local magnetic waves preferentially accelerating non-fully stripped ions over fully stripped ions from a loop opened by reconnection; (2) depleted fully stripped ions already contained in the corona magnetic loops before they are opened up by reconnection; or (3) fully stripped ions depleted by Coulomb collision after magnetic reconnection in the solar corona. If any one of these three scenarios is confirmed, the Outlier wind represents a direct signature of slow wind release through magnetic reconnection.

The efficiency of windbreaks on the basis of wind field and optical porosity measurement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tomáš Středa

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Windbreaks have been used for many years to reduce wind speed as a wind-erosion control mea­su­re. To assessment of windbreak efficiency two main parameters are using: height of windbreak (H and aerodynamic porosity. In South Moravian Region the total area of windbreaks is approximately 1200 ha. For purposes of horizontal profile measurement of wind speed and wind direction windbreaks with various spices composition, age and construction in cadastral territory Suchá Loz and Micmanice were chosen. Windbreak influence on horizontal wind profile was found out in distance of 50, 100, 150 and 200 m in front and behind windbreak in two-meter height above surface. For the optical porosity measurement the ImageTool program was used. The wind field measurement results of windbreak in Suchá Loz cadastral shows limited effect of windbreak on wind speed. The windbreak is created mainly by Canadian poplars (Populus × canadensis. In dependence on main species foliage stage the effect of windbreak was obvious on leeward side to distance of 100–150 m (c. 5–7 H. Average optical porosity of windbreak in Suchá Loz was 50% (April. Reduction of average wind speed was about 17% maximally in this stage. Optical porosity was 20% and wind speed reduction was about 37% during second measurement (October. The second monitored windbreak (Micmanice had a significant influence on wind speed even to the maximal measured distance (200 m, c. 14 H. This windbreak crea­ted mainly by Acer sp. and Fraxinus excelsior reduced the wind speed about 64%. During first measurement (May the optical porosity of 20% and maximal wind speed reduction of 64% were assessed. For optical porosity of 21% (October the wind speed reduction was about 55%. Close relation between optical porosity and wind speed reduction was found out by statistical evaluation. Correlation coefficient regardless locality for distance of 50 m was −0.80, 100 m −0.92, 150 m −0.76 and for distance of 200 m

Quality and Control of Water Vapor Winds

Science.gov (United States)

Jedlovec, Gary J.; Atkinson, Robert J.

1996-01-01

Water vapor imagery from the geostationary satellites such as GOES, Meteosat, and GMS provides synoptic views of dynamical events on a continual basis. Because the imagery represents a non-linear combination of mid- and upper-tropospheric thermodynamic parameters (three-dimensional variations in temperature and humidity), video loops of these image products provide enlightening views of regional flow fields, the movement of tropical and extratropical storm systems, the transfer of moisture between hemispheres and from the tropics to the mid- latitudes, and the dominance of high pressure systems over particular regions of the Earth. Despite the obvious larger scale features, the water vapor imagery contains significant image variability down to the single 8 km GOES pixel. These features can be quantitatively identified and tracked from one time to the next using various image processing techniques. Merrill et al. (1991), Hayden and Schmidt (1992), and Laurent (1993) have documented the operational procedures and capabilities of NOAA and ESOC to produce cloud and water vapor winds. These techniques employ standard correlation and template matching approaches to wind tracking and use qualitative and quantitative procedures to eliminate bad wind vectors from the wind data set. Techniques have also been developed to improve the quality of the operational winds though robust editing procedures (Hayden and Veldon 1991). These quality and control approaches have limitations, are often subjective, and constrain wind variability to be consistent with model derived wind fields. This paper describes research focused on the refinement of objective quality and control parameters for water vapor wind vector data sets. New quality and control measures are developed and employed to provide a more robust wind data set for climate analysis, data assimilation studies, as well as operational weather forecasting. The parameters are applicable to cloud-tracked winds as well with minor

Wide Field-of-View Soft X-Ray Imaging for Solar Wind-Magnetosphere Interactions

Science.gov (United States)

Walsh, B. M.; Collier, M. R.; Kuntz, K. D.; Porter, F. S.; Sibeck, D. G.; Snowden, S. L.; Carter, J. A.; Collado-Vega, Y.; Connor, H. K.; Cravens, T. E.;

Bidirectional ionic wind in nonpremixed counterflow flames with DC electric fields

KAUST Repository

Park, Daegeun; Chung, Suk-Ho; Cha, Min

2016-01-01

Under an electric field, ions in the reaction zone of a flame generate a bulk flow motion called ionic wind. Because the majority of ions are positive, ionic wind is commonly considered to be unidirectional toward the cathode. A more thorough

Examination of forced unsteady separated flow fields on a rotating wind turbine blade

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huyer, S [Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (US)

1993-04-01

The wind turbine industry faces many problems regarding the construction of efficient and predictable wind turbine machines. Steady state, two-dimensional wind tunnel data are generally used to predict aerodynamic loads on wind turbine blades. Preliminary experimental evidence indicates that some of the underlying fluid dynamic phenomena could be attributed to dynamic stall, or more specifically to generation of forced unsteady separated flow fields. A collaborative research effort between the University of Colorado and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory was conducted to systematically categorize the local and global effects of three- dimensional forced unsteady flow fields.

Identifying open magnetic field regions of the Sun and their heliospheric counterparts

Science.gov (United States)

Krista, L. D.; Reinard, A.

2017-12-01

Open magnetic regions on the Sun are either long-lived (coronal holes) or transient (dimmings) in nature. Both phenomena are fundamental to our understanding of the solar behavior as a whole. Coronal holes are the sources of high-speed solar wind streams that cause recurrent geomagnetic storms. Furthermore, the variation of coronal hole properties (area, location, magnetic field strength) over the solar activity cycle is an important marker of the global evolution of the solar magnetic field. Dimming regions, on the other hand, are short-lived coronal holes that often emerge in the wake of solar eruptions. By analyzing their physical properties and their temporal evolution, we aim to understand their connection with their eruptive counterparts (flares and coronal mass ejections) and predict the possibility of a geomagnetic storm. The author developed the Coronal Hole Automated Recognition and Monitoring (CHARM) and the Coronal Dimming Tracker (CoDiT) algorithms. These tools not only identify but track the evolution of open magnetic field regions. CHARM also provides daily coronal hole maps, that are used for forecasts at the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center. Our goal is to better understand the processes that give rise to eruptive and non-eruptive open field regions and investigate how these regions evolve over time and influence space weather.

Statistical downscaling of IPCC sea surface wind and wind energy predictions for U.S. east coastal ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, Zhigang; Xue, Zuo; He, Ruoying; Bao, Xianwen; Song, Jun

2016-08-01

A multivariate statistical downscaling method is developed to produce regional, high-resolution, coastal surface wind fields based on the IPCC global model predictions for the U.S. east coastal ocean, the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), and the Caribbean Sea. The statistical relationship is built upon linear regressions between the empirical orthogonal function (EOF) spaces of a cross- calibrated, multi-platform, multi-instrument ocean surface wind velocity dataset (predictand) and the global NCEP wind reanalysis (predictor) over a 10 year period from 2000 to 2009. The statistical relationship is validated before applications and its effectiveness is confirmed by the good agreement between downscaled wind fields based on the NCEP reanalysis and in-situ surface wind measured at 16 National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) buoys in the U.S. east coastal ocean and the GOM during 1992-1999. The predictand-predictor relationship is applied to IPCC GFDL model output (2.0°×2.5°) of downscaled coastal wind at 0.25°×0.25° resolution. The temporal and spatial variability of future predicted wind speeds and wind energy potential over the study region are further quantified. It is shown that wind speed and power would significantly be reduced in the high CO2 climate scenario offshore of the mid-Atlantic and northeast U.S., with the speed falling to one quarter of its original value.

TIBER-II TF [toroidal-field] winding pack design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kerns, J.A.; Miller, J.R.; Slack, D.S.; Summers, L.T.

1987-01-01

The superconducting, toroidal-field (TF) coils in the Tokamak Ignition/Burn Engineering Reactor (TIBER II) are designed with cable-in-conduit conductor (CICC) using Nb 3 Sn composite strands. To design the CICC winding pack, we used an optimization technique that maximizes the conductor stability without violating the constraints imposed by the structure, electrical insulation, quench protection, and fabrication technique. Detailed helium-properties codes calculate the heat removal along a flow path, and detailed field calculations determine the temperature, current, and stability margins. The conductor sheath is designed as distributed structure to partially support the combined in-plane and out-of-plane loads generated within the winding pack. Pancakes of the coil are wound, reacted, and insulated before being potted in the case. This design is aggressive but fully consistent with good engineering practice. 5 refs., 4 figs., 2 tabs

Aspects Referring Wind Energy Integration from the Power System Point of View in the Region of Southeast Europe. Study Case of Romania

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simona-Vasilica Oprea

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Wind energy integration is a complex target that could refer to different aspects such as: grid capacity; power system; support scheme; environmental; social issues; etc. It is probably the less predictable renewable energy sources (RES due to its high volatility being difficult to be securely integrated into the power systems. This paper will focus on the wind energy integration from the power system point of view, emphasizing the case of Romania. Before going into the Romanian case, the paper analyzes the potential benefits of the regional approach in terms of power system integration, revealing that it can bring significant advantages by reducing the required power reserves or increasing wind power plants (WPP generation. Currently, the power system integration is one of the major obstacle to large scale wind energy penetration in the region of Southeast (SE Europe with high wind energy potential. The results of our research consist in proposing a model for estimating the balancing reserves sharing at regional level, comparing regional to country-by-country approach in terms of the power reserve requirements for balancing the operation of WPP. It definitely reveals that by regional Transmission System Operators (TSO coordination; less reserves are needed; therefore, the space for RES enlarges. We also propose a model for Romanian power system that is able to calculate the installed power of WPP that could operate without considerable interruptions. Also, the model estimates the additional power reserves required for larger wind energy integration. This perspective can provide interesting insights on what should be foreseen as reasonable behavior of the policy makers and investors.

Study of the solar wind coupling to the time difference horizontal geomagnetic field

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Wintoft

2005-07-01

Full Text Available The local ground geomagnetic field fluctuations (Δ B are dominated by high frequencies and 83% of the power is located at periods of 32 min or less. By forming 10-min root-mean-square (RMS of Δ B a major part of this variation is captured. Using measured geomagnetic induced currents (GIC, from a power grid transformer in Southern Sweden, it is shown that the 10-min standard deviation GIC may be computed from a linear model using the RMS Δ X and Δ Y at Brorfelde (BFE: 11.67° E, 55.63° N, Denmark, and Uppsala (UPS: 17.35° E, 59.90° N, Sweden, with a correlation of 0.926±0.015. From recurrent neural network models, that are driven by solar wind data, it is shown that the log RMS Δ X and Δ Y at the two locations may be predicted up to 30 min in advance with a correlation close to 0.8: 0.78±0.02 for both directions at BFE; 0.81±0.02 and 0.80±0.02 in the X- and Y-directions, respectively, at UPS. The most important inputs to the models are the 10-min averages of the solar wind magnetic field component B_z and velocity V, and the 10-min standard deviation of the proton number density σ_n. The average proton number density n has no influence.

Keywords. Magnetospheric physics (Solar wind - magnetosphere interactions – Geomagnetism and paleomagnetism (Rapid time variations

Thermal wind model for the broad emission line region of quasars

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weymann, R.J.; Scott, J.S.; Schiano, A.V.R.; Christiansen, W.A.

1982-01-01

Arguments are summarized for supposing that the clouds giving rise to the broad emission lines of QSOs are confined by the pressure of an expanding thermal gas and that a flux of relativistic particles with luminosity comparable to the photon luminosity streams through this gas. The resulting heating and momentum deposition produces a transonic thermal wind whose dynamical properties are calculated in detail. This wind accelerates and confines the emission line clouds, thereby producing the broad emission line (BEL) profiles. In a companion paper, the properties of the wind at much larger distances (approx.kpc) than the BEL region are used to explain the production of the broad absorption lines (BAL) observed in some QSOs. The same set of wind parameters can account for the properties of both the BEL and BAL regions, and this unification in the physical description of the BEL and BAL regions is one of the most important advantages of this model. A characteristic size of approx.1 pc for the QSO emission line region is one consequence of the model. This characteristic size is shown to depend upon luminosity in such a way that the ionization parameter is roughly constant over a wide range of luminosities. An X-ray luminosity due to thermal bremsstrahlung of approx.1%--10% of the optical luminosity is another consequence of the model. The trajectories of clouds under the combined influence of ram pressure acceleration and radiative acceleration are calculated. From these trajectories emission line profiles are also calculated, as well as the wind and cloud parameters yielding profiles in fair agreement with observed profiles explored. Opacity in the wind due to electron scattering displaces the line cores of optically thin lines to the blue. This is roughly compensated for by the redward skewing of optically thick lines due to preferential emission of photons from the back side of the clouds.void rapid depletion due to Compton losses are discussed

Hydrodynamical winds from a geometrically thin disk

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fukue, Jun

1989-01-01

Hydrodynamical winds emanating from the surface of a geometrically thin disk under the gravitational field of the central object are examined. The attention is focused on the transonic nature of the flow. For a given configuration of streamlines, the flow fields are divided into three regions: the inner region where the gas near the disk plane is gravitationally bound to form a corona; the intermediate wind region where multiple critical points appear and the gas flows out from the disk passing through critical points; and the outer region where the gas is unbound to escape to infinity without passing through critical points. This behavior of disk winds is due to the shape of the gravitational potential of the central object along the streamline and due to the energy source distribution at the flow base on the disk plane where the potential in finite. (author)

The effect of the equatorially symmetric zonal winds of Saturn on its gravitational field

Science.gov (United States)

Kong, Dali; Zhang, Keke; Schubert, Gerald; Anderson, John D.

2018-04-01

The penetration depth of Saturn’s cloud-level winds into its interior is unknown. A possible way of estimating the depth is through measurement of the effect of the winds on the planet’s gravitational field. We use a self-consistent perturbation approach to study how the equatorially symmetric zonal winds of Saturn contribute to its gravitational field. An important advantage of this approach is that the variation of its gravitational field solely caused by the winds can be isolated and identified because the leading-order problem accounts exactly for rotational distortion, thereby determining the irregular shape and internal structure of the hydrostatic Saturn. We assume that (i) the zonal winds are maintained by thermal convection in the form of non-axisymmetric columnar rolls and (ii) the internal structure of the winds, because of the Taylor-Proundman theorem, can be uniquely determined by the observed cloud-level winds. We calculate both the variation ΔJn , n = 2, 4, 6 … of the axisymmetric gravitational coefficients Jn caused by the zonal winds and the non-axisymmetric gravitational coefficients ΔJnm produced by the columnar rolls, where m is the azimuthal wavenumber of the rolls. We consider three different cases characterized by the penetration depth 0.36, R S, 0.2, R S and 0.1, R S, where R S is the equatorial radius of Saturn at the 1-bar pressure level. We find that the high-degree gravitational coefficient (J 12 + ΔJ 12) is dominated, in all the three cases, by the effect of the zonal flow with |ΔJ 12/J 12| > 100% and that the size of the non-axisymmetric coefficients ΔJ mn directly reflects the depth and scale of the flow taking place in the Saturnian interior.

Wind power development field test project at Okkobe-cho. Close survey on wind conditions; Okkobecho ni okeru furyoku kaihatsu field test jigyo (fukyo seisa) hokokusho

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1999-11-01

A survey was made on regional wind conditions on the assumption that a wind power generator was installed around Okkobe Rakuno-no-oka, Okkobe-cho, Monbetsu-gun, Hokkaido. The survey period was one year from Oct., 1998 to Sept., 1999. The observations were carried out on the average wind velocity, average wind direction, standard deviation of velocity, and the maximum instantaneous wind velocity. With a fixed point observation at 20 m above ground, and with the minimum observation time unit of 10 minutes, an average value during the 10 minutes was determined as the measurement of each category. However, the maximum instantaneous wind velocity was determined on the measurement with the minimum observation time unit of 2 seconds. The average wind velocity was 4.8 m/s, the maximum wind velocity during the period was 29.9 m/s, the prevailing wind direction was WSW (17.1%), the wind axis was WSW-ENE, and the total occurrence rate of wind direction was 51.1%. The intensity of turbulence was 0.19 at a wind velocity of 2.0 m/s or above and was 0.16 at 4.0 m/s or above. An estimated annual operation rate of a windmill was 59-77% using the rated value of a 150 kW, 300 kW and 750 kW class windmills. (NEDO)

STRONG SOLAR WIND DYNAMIC PRESSURE PULSES: INTERPLANETARY SOURCES AND THEIR IMPACTS ON GEOSYNCHRONOUS MAGNETIC FIELDS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zuo, Pingbing; Feng, Xueshang; Wang, Yi; Xie, Yanqiong; Xu, Xiaojun

2015-01-01

In this investigation, we first present a statistical result of the interplanetary sources of very strong solar wind dynamic pressure pulses (DPPs) detected by WIND during solar cycle 23. It is found that the vast majority of strong DPPs reside within solar wind disturbances. Although the variabilities of geosynchronous magnetic fields (GMFs) due to the impact of positive DPPs have been well established, there appears to be no systematic investigations on the response of GMFs to negative DPPs. Here, we study both the decompression effects of very strong negative DPPs and the compression from strong positive DPPs on GMFs at different magnetic local time sectors. In response to the decompression of strong negative DPPs, GMFs on the dayside near dawn and near dusk on the nightside, are generally depressed. But near the midnight region, the responses of GMF are very diverse, being either positive or negative. For part of the events when GOES is located at the midnight sector, the GMF is found to abnormally increase as the result of magnetospheric decompression caused by negative DPPs. It is known that under certain conditions magnetic depression of nightside GMFs can be caused by the impact of positive DPPs. Here, we find that a stronger pressure enhancement may have a higher probability of producing the exceptional depression of GMF at the midnight region. Statistically, both the decompression effect of strong negative DPPs and the compression effect of strong positive DPPs depend on the magnetic local time, which are stronger at the noon sector

STRONG SOLAR WIND DYNAMIC PRESSURE PULSES: INTERPLANETARY SOURCES AND THEIR IMPACTS ON GEOSYNCHRONOUS MAGNETIC FIELDS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zuo, Pingbing; Feng, Xueshang; Wang, Yi [SIGMA Weather Group, State Key Laboratory of Space Weather, National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China); Xie, Yanqiong [College of Meteorology and Oceanography, PLA University of Science and Technology, Nanjing (China); Xu, Xiaojun, E-mail: pbzuo@spaceweather.ac.cn, E-mail: fengx@spaceweather.ac.cn [Space Science Institute, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao (China)

2015-10-20

In this investigation, we first present a statistical result of the interplanetary sources of very strong solar wind dynamic pressure pulses (DPPs) detected by WIND during solar cycle 23. It is found that the vast majority of strong DPPs reside within solar wind disturbances. Although the variabilities of geosynchronous magnetic fields (GMFs) due to the impact of positive DPPs have been well established, there appears to be no systematic investigations on the response of GMFs to negative DPPs. Here, we study both the decompression effects of very strong negative DPPs and the compression from strong positive DPPs on GMFs at different magnetic local time sectors. In response to the decompression of strong negative DPPs, GMFs on the dayside near dawn and near dusk on the nightside, are generally depressed. But near the midnight region, the responses of GMF are very diverse, being either positive or negative. For part of the events when GOES is located at the midnight sector, the GMF is found to abnormally increase as the result of magnetospheric decompression caused by negative DPPs. It is known that under certain conditions magnetic depression of nightside GMFs can be caused by the impact of positive DPPs. Here, we find that a stronger pressure enhancement may have a higher probability of producing the exceptional depression of GMF at the midnight region. Statistically, both the decompression effect of strong negative DPPs and the compression effect of strong positive DPPs depend on the magnetic local time, which are stronger at the noon sector.

Swell impact on wind stress and atmospheric mixing in a regional coupled atmosphere-wave model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wu, Lichuan; Rutgersson, Anna; Sahlée, Erik

2016-01-01

Over the ocean, the atmospheric turbulence can be significantly affected by swell waves. Change in the atmospheric turbulence affects the wind stress and atmospheric mixing over swell waves. In this study, the influence of swell on atmospheric mixing and wind stress is introduced into an atmosphere-wave-coupled...... regional climate model, separately and combined. The swell influence on atmospheric mixing is introduced into the atmospheric mixing length formula by adding a swell-induced contribution to the mixing. The swell influence on the wind stress under wind-following swell, moderate-range wind, and near......-neutral and unstable stratification conditions is introduced by changing the roughness length. Five year simulation results indicate that adding the swell influence on atmospheric mixing has limited influence, only slightly increasing the near-surface wind speed; in contrast, adding the swell influence on wind stress...

Directory of the manufacturers and suppliers for the French wind power industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2010-11-01

With over 5, 660 MW installed in end-2010, France ranks fourth in Europe, behind Germany, Spain and Italy. The wind power industry currently employs almost 11, 000 people in France throughout the value chain. In 2009, the first edition of this directory listed over one hundred companies working in around twenty different areas. Encouraged by these initial positive results, and with the help of ADEME, the French syndicate for renewable energies (SER) asked Capgemini Consulting to undertake a study to identify and raise awareness among French industrials likely to enter into the wind energy market. The French Ministry for Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and the Sea, along with the Ministry for the Economy, Finance and Employment, were involved in the work. 400 companies were questioned as part of the study. Over 150 replies testified to the dynamic character of the wind power market in France and overseas, and the opportunities for diversification that it represents for traditional industries like metallurgy, aeronautics, defence and shipyards, etc. The study led to the creation of the initiative Windustry France, which currently groups over 300 companies either active in the French wind power market or set to enter it. Windustry France is a showcase of the industrial know-how that can be used in the wind power industry both onshore and offshore. It includes local set-ups developed around major fields of activity (e.g. car industry, aeronautics, mechanics, etc.) and industrial port zones (Dunkerque, Rouen/Le Havre, Brest, Nantes Saint-Nazaire, Bordeaux, etc.). Several ministries, regional stakeholders and authorities are also involved (local authorities, Regional directorates for industry, research and the environment (DReal) networks and chambers of commerce and industry), all of which contribute to making Windustry France a collective approach to industrial policy. The 2010-2011 edition of the directory of manufacturers and suppliers for the wind power

Solar wind interaction with comet 67P: Impacts of corotating interaction regions

Science.gov (United States)

Edberg, N. J. T.; Eriksson, A. I.; Odelstad, E.; Vigren, E.; Andrews, D. J.; Johansson, F.; Burch, J. L.; Carr, C. M.; Cupido, E.; Glassmeier, K.-H.; Goldstein, R.; Halekas, J. S.; Henri, P.; Koenders, C.; Mandt, K.; Mokashi, P.; Nemeth, Z.; Nilsson, H.; Ramstad, R.; Richter, I.; Wieser, G. Stenberg

2016-02-01

We present observations from the Rosetta Plasma Consortium of the effects of stormy solar wind on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Four corotating interaction regions (CIRs), where the first event has possibly merged with a coronal mass ejection, are traced from Earth via Mars (using Mars Express and Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission) to comet 67P from October to December 2014. When the comet is 3.1-2.7 AU from the Sun and the neutral outgassing rate ˜1025-1026 s-1, the CIRs significantly influence the cometary plasma environment at altitudes down to 10-30 km. The ionospheric low-energy (˜5 eV) plasma density increases significantly in all events, by a factor of >2 in events 1 and 2 but less in events 3 and 4. The spacecraft potential drops below -20 V upon impact when the flux of electrons increases. The increased density is likely caused by compression of the plasma environment, increased particle impact ionization, and possibly charge exchange processes and acceleration of mass-loaded plasma back to the comet ionosphere. During all events, the fluxes of suprathermal (˜10-100 eV) electrons increase significantly, suggesting that the heating mechanism of these electrons is coupled to the solar wind energy input. At impact the magnetic field strength in the coma increases by a factor of 2-5 as more interplanetary magnetic field piles up around the comet. During two CIR impact events, we observe possible plasma boundaries forming, or moving past Rosetta, as the strong solar wind compresses the cometary plasma environment. We also discuss the possibility of seeing some signatures of the ionospheric response to tail disconnection events.

Diurnal, monthly and seasonal variation of mean winds in the MLT region observed over Kolhapur using MF radar

Science.gov (United States)

Sharma, A. K.; Gaikwad, H. P.; Ratnam, M. Venkat; Gurav, O. B.; Ramanjaneyulu, L.; Chavan, G. A.; Sathishkumar, S.

2018-04-01

Medium Frequency (MF) radar located at Kolhapur (16.8°N, 74.2°E) has been upgraded in August 2013. Since then continuous measurements of zonal and meridional winds are obtained covering larger altitudes from the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere (MLT) region. Diurnal, monthly and seasonal variation of these mean winds is presented in this study using four years (2013-2017) of observations. The percentage occurrence of radar echoes show maximum between 80 and 105 km. The mean meridional wind shows Annual Oscillation (AO) between 80 and 90 km altitudes with pole-ward motion during December solstice and equatorial motion during June solstice. Quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) with weaker amplitudes are also observed between 90 and 104 km. Zonal winds show semi-annual oscillation (SAO) with westward winds during equinoxes and eastward winds during solstices between 80 and 90 km. AO with eastward winds during December solstice and westward wind in the June solstice is also observed in the mean zonal wind between 100 and 110 km. These results match well with that reported from other latitudes within Indian region between 80 and 90 km. However, above 90 km the results presented here provide true mean background winds for the first time over Indian low latitude region as the present station is away from equatorial electro-jet and are not contaminated by ionospheric processes. Further, the results presented earlier with an old version of this radar are found contaminated due to unknown reasons and are corrected in the present work. This upgraded MF radar together with other MLT radars in the Indian region forms unique network to investigate the vertical and lateral coupling.

Field test of wake steering at an offshore wind farm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Fleming

2017-05-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a field test of wake-steering control is presented. The field test is the result of a collaboration between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL and Envision Energy, a smart energy management company and turbine manufacturer. In the campaign, an array of turbines within an operating commercial offshore wind farm in China have the normal yaw controller modified to implement wake steering according to a yaw control strategy. The strategy was designed using NREL wind farm models, including a computational fluid dynamics model, Simulator fOr Wind Farm Applications (SOWFA, for understanding wake dynamics and an engineering model, FLOw Redirection and Induction in Steady State (FLORIS, for yaw control optimization. Results indicate that, within the certainty afforded by the data, the wake-steering controller was successful in increasing power capture, by amounts similar to those predicted from the models.

Wind tunnel study of the power output spectrum in a micro wind farm

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bossuyt, Juliaan; Meyers, Johan; Howland, Michael F.; Meneveau, Charles

2016-01-01

Instrumented small-scale porous disk models are used to study the spectrum of a surrogate for the power output in a micro wind farm with 100 models of wind turbines. The power spectra of individual porous disk models in the first row of the wind farm show the expected -5/3 power law at higher frequencies. Downstream models measure an increased variance due to wake effects. Conversely, the power spectrum of the sum of the power over the entire wind farm shows a peak at the turbine-to-turbine travel frequency between the model turbines, and a near -5/3 power law region at a much wider range of lower frequencies, confirming previous LES results. Comparison with the spectrum that would result when assuming that the signals are uncorrelated, highlights the strong effects of correlations and anti-correlations in the fluctuations at various frequencies. (paper)

Seasonal Variability of Wind Sea and Swell Waves Climate along the Canary Current: The Local Wind Effect

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alvaro Semedo

2018-03-01

Full Text Available A climatology of wind sea and swell waves along the Canary eastern boundary current area, from west Iberia to Mauritania, is presented. The study is based on the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF reanalysis ERA-Interim. The wind regime along the Canary Current, along west Iberia and north-west Africa, varies significantly from winter to summer. High summer wind speeds generate high wind sea waves, particularly along the coasts of Morocco and Western Sahara. Lower winter wind speeds, along with stronger extratropical storms crossing the North Atlantic sub-basin up north lead to a predominance of swell waves in the area during from December to February. In summer, the coast parallel wind interacts with the coastal headlands, increasing the wind speed and the locally generated waves. The spatial patterns of the wind sea or swell regional wave fields are shown to be different from the open ocean, due to coastal geometry, fetch dimensions, and island sheltering.

Determination of wind energy potential and its implementation concept for the electricity market in the Vojvodina region (north Serbia: An overview

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Micić Tanja

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Renewable energy sources play an important role in the future not only for the European countries, but for many countries worldwide. Most cost-effective and reliable large wind energy conversion systems are becoming the main focus of wind energy research and technology development, all in order to make wind energy competitive with other more traditional sources of electrical energy like coal, gas and nuclear generation. Serbia, along with neighboring countries, has a high potential for developing energy production from renewable energy sources. Wind energy in Serbia, despite its great potential, is only partly studied and insufficiently used. This study aims to provide summary of wind energy potentials in the region of Vojvodina, which is an important economic region in northern Serbia. Its existing electrical energy status is thoroughly investigated according to the recent developments of wind energy production on global, regional and local scale. The main purpose of this study is the implementation of energy efficiency concept with purpose of satisfying the needs of Serbian electricity market.

Comparison study between wind turbine and power kite wakes

Science.gov (United States)

Haas, T.; Meyers, J.

2017-05-01

Airborne Wind Energy (AWE) is an emerging technology in the field of renewable energy that uses kites to harvest wind energy. However, unlike for conventional wind turbines, the wind environment in AWE systems has not yet been studied in much detail. We propose a simulation framework using Large Eddy Simulation to model the wakes of such kite systems and offer a comparison with turbine-like wakes. In order to model the kite effects on the flow, a lifting line technique is used. We investigate different wake configurations related to the operation modes of wind turbines and airborne systems in drag mode. In the turbine mode, the aerodynamic torque of the blades is directly added to the flow. In the kite drag mode, the aerodynamic torque of the wings is directly balanced by an opposite torque induced by on-board generators; this results in a total torque on the flow that is zero. We present the main differences in wake characteristics, especially flow induction and vorticity fields, for the depicted operation modes both with laminar and turbulent inflows.

Carolina Offshore Wind Integration Case Study: Phases I and II Final Technical Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fallon, Christopher [Duke Energy Business Services, LLC, Charlotte, NC (United States); Piper, Orvane [Duke Energy Business Services, LLC, Charlotte, NC (United States); Hazelip, William [Duke Energy Business Services, LLC, Charlotte, NC (United States); Zhao, Yishan [Duke Energy Business Services, LLC, Charlotte, NC (United States); Salvador, Lisa [Duke Energy Business Services, LLC, Charlotte, NC (United States); Pruitt, Tom [Duke Energy Business Services, LLC, Charlotte, NC (United States); Peterson, Jeffrey [Duke Energy Business Services, LLC, Charlotte, NC (United States); Ashby, Rebecca [Duke Energy Business Services, LLC, Charlotte, NC (United States); Pierce, Bob [Duke Energy Business Services, LLC, Charlotte, NC (United States); Burner, Bob [Duke Energy Business Services, LLC, Charlotte, NC (United States); Daniel, John [ABB, Inc., Cary, NC (United States); Zhu, Jinxiang [ABB, Inc., Cary, NC (United States); Moore, Maria [ABB, Inc., Cary, NC (United States); Liu, Shu [ABB, Inc., Cary, NC (United States); Pennock, Ken [AWS Truepower, LLC, Albany, NY (United States); Frank, Jaclyn [AWS Truepower, LLC, Albany, NY (United States); Ibanez, Eduardo [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Heaney, Michael [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Bloom, Aaron [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Zhang, Yingchen [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Elliott, Dennis [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Seim, Harvey E. [Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)

2015-04-30

Duke Energy performed a phase 1 study to assess the impact of offshore wind development in the waters off the coasts of North Carolina and South Carolina. The study analyzed the impacts to the Duke Energy Carolinas electric power system of multiple wind deployment scenarios. Focusing on an integrated utility system in the Carolinas provided a unique opportunity to assess the impacts of offshore wind development in a region that has received less attention regarding renewables than others in the US. North Carolina is the only state in the Southeastern United States that currently has a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) which requires that 12.5% of the state’s total energy requirements be met with renewable resources by 2021. 12.5% of the state’s total energy requirements in 2021 equates to approximately 17,000 GWH of energy needed from renewable resources. Wind resources represent one of the ways to potentially meet this requirement. The study builds upon and augments ongoing work, including a study by UNC to identify potential wind development sites and the analysis of impacts to the regional transmission system performed by the NCTPC, an Order 890 planning entity of which DEC is a member. Furthermore, because the region does not have an independent system operator (ISO) or regional transmission organization (RTO), the study will provide additional information unique to non-RTO/ISO systems. The Phase 2 study builds on the results of Phase 1 and investigates the dynamic stability of the electrical network in Task 4, the operating characteristics of the wind turbines as they impact operating reserve requirements of the DEC utility in Task 5, and the production cost of integrating the offshore wind resources into the DEC generation fleet making comparisons to future planned operation without the addition of the wind resources in Task 6.

Local and regional effects of large scale atmospheric circulation patterns on winter wind power output in Western Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Zubiate, Laura; McDermott, Frank; Sweeney, Conor; O'Malley, Mark

2014-05-01

Recent studies (Brayshaw, 2009, Garcia-Bustamante, 2010, Garcia-Bustamante, 2013) have drawn attention to the sensitivity of wind speed distributions and likely wind energy power output in Western Europe to changes in low-frequency, large scale atmospheric circulation patterns such as the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Wind speed variations and directional shifts as a function of the NAO state can be larger or smaller depending on the North Atlantic region that is considered. Wind speeds in Ireland and the UK for example are approximately 20 % higher during NAO + phases, and up to 30 % lower during NAO - phases relative to the long-term (30 year) climatological means. By contrast, in southern Europe, wind speeds are 15 % lower than average during NAO + phases and 15 % higher than average during NAO - phases. Crucially however, some regions such as Brittany in N.W. France have been identified in which there is negligible variability in wind speeds as a function of the NAO phase, as observed in the ERA-Interim 0.5 degree gridded reanalysis database. However, the magnitude of these effects on wind conditions is temporally and spatially non-stationary. As described by Comas-Bru and McDermott (2013) for temperature and precipitation, such non-stationarity is caused by the influence of two other patterns, the East Atlantic pattern, (EA), and the Scandinavian pattern, (SCA), which modulate the position of the NAO dipole. This phenomenon has also implications for wind speeds and directions, which has been assessed using the ERA-Interim reanalysis dataset and the indices obtained from the PC analysis of sea level pressure over the Atlantic region. In order to study the implications for power production, the interaction of the NAO and the other teleconnection patterns with local topography was also analysed, as well as how these interactions ultimately translate into wind power output. The objective is to have a better defined relationship between wind speed and power

Polar cap mesosphere wind observations: comparisons of simultaneous measurements with a Fabry-Perot interferometer and a field-widened Michelson interferometer.

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, G M; Killeen, T L; Wu, Q; Reeves, J M; Hays, P B; Gault, W A; Brown, S; Shepherd, G G

2000-08-20

Polar cap mesospheric winds observed with a Fabry-Perot interferometer with a circle-to-line interferometer optical (FPI/CLIO) system have been compared with measurements from a field-widened Michelson interferometer optimized for E-region winds (ERWIN). Both instruments observed the Meinel OH emission emanating from the mesopause region (approximately 86 km) at Resolute Bay, Canada (74.9 degrees N, 94.9 degrees W). This is the first time, to our knowledge, that winds measured simultaneously from a ground-based Fabry-Perot interferometer and a ground-based Michelson interferometer have been compared at the same location. The FPI/CLIO and ERWIN instruments both have a capability for high temporal resolution (less than 10 min for a full scan in the four cardinal directions and the zenith). Statistical comparisons of hourly mean winds for both instruments by scatterplots show excellent agreement, indicating that the two optical techniques provide equivalent observations of mesopause winds. Small deviations in the measured wind can be ascribed to the different zenith angles used by the two instruments. The combined measurements illustrate the dominance of the 12-h wave in the mesopause winds at Resolute Bay, with additional evidence for strong gravity wave activity with much shorter periods (tens of minutes). Future operations of the two instruments will focus on observation of complementary emissions, providing a unique passive optical capability for the determination of neutral winds in the geomagnetic polar cap at various altitudes near the mesopause.

Effect of vegetation cover and transitions on regional wind erosion in drylands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Youssef, I.F.

2012-01-01

Wind erosion is a critical environmental problem that threatens mainly the arid and semi-arid regions of our planet. Usually this problem is associated with desertification, poverty and other environmental and socioeconomic problems. Wind erosion causes the loss of fertile topsoil, and has a

Objective Tracking of Tropical Cyclones in the North-West Pacific Basin Based on Wind Field Information only

Science.gov (United States)

Leckebusch, G. C.; Befort, D. J.; Kruschke, T.

2016-12-01

Although only ca. 12% of the global insured losses of natural disasters occurred in Asia, there are two major reasons to be concerned about risks in Asia: a) The fraction of loss events was substantial higher with 39% of which 94% were due to atmospheric processes; b) Asia and especially China, is undergoing quick transitions and especially the insurance market is rapidly growing. In order to allow for the estimation of potential future (loss) impacts in East-Asia, in this study we further developed and applied a feature tracking system based on extreme wind speed occurrences to tropical cyclones, which was originally developed for extra-tropical cyclones (Leckebusch et al., 2008). In principle, wind fields will be identified and tracked once a coherent exceedance of local percentile thresholds is identified. The focus on severe wind impact will allow an objective link between the strength of a cyclone and its potential damages over land. The wind tracking is developed in such a way to be applicable also to course-gridded AOGCM simulation. In the presented configuration the wind tracking algorithm is applied to the Japanese reanalysis (JRA55) and TC Identification is based on 850hPa wind speeds (6h resolution) from 1979 to 2014 over the Western North Pacific region. For validation the IBTrACS Best Track archive version v03r8 is used. Out of all 904 observed tracks, about 62% can be matched to at least one windstorm event identified in JRA55. It is found that the relative amount of matched best tracks increases with the maximum intensity. Thus, a positive matching (hit rate) of above 98% for Violent Typhoons (VTY), above 90% for Very Strong Typhoons (VSTY), about 75% for Typhoons (TY), and still some 50% for less intense TCs (TD, TS, STS) is found. This result is extremely encouraging to apply this technique to AOGCM outputs and to derive information about affected regions and intensity-frequency distributions potentially changed under future climate conditions.

Behavior of the aggregate wind resource in the ISO regions in the United States

KAUST Repository

Gunturu, Udaya

2015-04-01

The collective behavior of wind farms in seven Independent System Operator (ISO) areas has been studied. The generation duration curves for each ISO show that there is no aggregated power for some fraction of time. Aggregation of wind turbines mitigates intermittency to some extent, but in each ISO there is considerable fraction of time when there is less than 5% capacity. The hourly wind power time series show benefit of aggregation but the high and low wind events are lumped in time, thus indicating that intermittency is synchronized in each region. The timeseries show that there are instances when there is no wind power in most ISOs because of large-scale high pressure systems. An analytical consideration of the collective behavior of aggregated wind turbines shows that the benefit of aggregation saturates beyond a certain number of generating units asymptotically. Also, the benefit of aggregation falls rapidly with temporal correlation between the generating units.

Behavior of the aggregate wind resource in the ISO regions in the United States

KAUST Repository

Gunturu, Udaya; Schlosser, Clemens Adam

2015-01-01

The collective behavior of wind farms in seven Independent System Operator (ISO) areas has been studied. The generation duration curves for each ISO show that there is no aggregated power for some fraction of time. Aggregation of wind turbines mitigates intermittency to some extent, but in each ISO there is considerable fraction of time when there is less than 5% capacity. The hourly wind power time series show benefit of aggregation but the high and low wind events are lumped in time, thus indicating that intermittency is synchronized in each region. The timeseries show that there are instances when there is no wind power in most ISOs because of large-scale high pressure systems. An analytical consideration of the collective behavior of aggregated wind turbines shows that the benefit of aggregation saturates beyond a certain number of generating units asymptotically. Also, the benefit of aggregation falls rapidly with temporal correlation between the generating units.

Wind energy applications of synthetic aperture radar

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bruun Christiansen, M.

2006-11-15

Synthetic aperture radars (SAR), mounted on satellites or aircraft, have proven useful for ocean wind mapping. Wind speeds at the height 10 m may be retrieved from measurements of radar backscatter using empirical model functions. The resulting wind fields are valuable in offshore wind energy planning as a supplement to on site measurements, which are costly and sparse, and model wind fields, which are not fully validated. Two applications of SAR measurements in offshore wind energy planning are addressed here: the study of wind farm wake effects and the potential of using SAR winds in offshore wind resource assessment. Firstly, wind wakes behind two large offshore wind farms in Denmark Horns Rev and Nysted are identified. A region of reduced wind speed is found downstream of both wind farms from the SAR wind fields. The wake extent and magnitude depends on the wind speed, the atmospheric stability, and the fraction of turbines operating. Wind farm wake effects are detected up to 20 km downwind of the last turbine. This distance is longer than predicted by state-of-the art wake models. Wake losses are typically 10-20% near the wind farms. Secondly, the potential of using SAR wind maps in offshore wind resource assessment is investigated. The resource assessment is made through Weibull fitting to frequency observations of wind speed and requires at least 100 satellite observations per year for a given site of interest. Predictions of the energy density are very sensitive to the wind speed and the highest possible accuracy on SAR wind retrievals is therefore sought. A 1.1 m s{sup -1} deviation on the mean wind speed is found through comparison with mast measurements at Horns Rev. The accuracy on mean wind speeds and energy densities found from satellite measurements varies with different empirical model functions. Additional uncertainties are introduced by the infrequent satellite sampling at fixed times of the day. The accuracy on satellite based wind resource

Satellite information for wind energy applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nielsen, M.; Astrup, P.; Bay Hasager, C.

2004-11-01

An introduction to satellite information relevant for wind energy applications is given. It includes digital elevation model (DEM) data based on satellite observations. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) is useful for regional scale wind resource studies. Comparison results from complex terrain in Spain and flat terrain in Denmark are found to be acceptable for both sites. Also land cover type information can be retrieved from satellite observations. Land cover type maps have to be combined with roughness data from field observation or literature values. Land cover type maps constitute an aid to map larger regions within shorter time. Field site observations of obstacles and hedges are still necessary. The raster-based map information from DEM and land cover maps can be converted for use in WASP. For offshore locations it is possible to estimate the wind resources based on ocean surface wind data from several types of satellite observations. The RWT software allows an optimal calculation of SAR wind resource statistics. A tab-file with SAR-based observed wind climate (OWC) data can be obtained for 10 m above sea level and used in WASP. RWT uses a footprint averaging technique to obtain data as similar as possible to mast observations. Maximum-likelihood fitting is used to calculate the Weibull A and k parameters from the constrained data set. Satellite SAR wind maps cover the coastal zone from 3 km and offshore with very detailed information of 400 m by 400 m grid resolution. Spatial trends in mean wind, energy density, Weibull A and k and uncertainty values are provided for the area of interest. Satellite scatterometer wind observations have a spatial resolution of 25 km by 25 km. These data typically represent a site further offshore, and the tab-file statistics should be used in WASP combined with topography and roughness information to assess the coastal wind power potential. Scatterometer wind data are observed {approx} twice per day, whereas SAR only

THE BARYON CYCLE AT HIGH REDSHIFTS: EFFECTS OF GALACTIC WINDS ON GALAXY EVOLUTION IN OVERDENSE AND AVERAGE REGIONS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sadoun, Raphael [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0830 (United States); Shlosman, Isaac; Choi, Jun-Hwan; Romano-Díaz, Emilio, E-mail: raphael.sadoun@utah.edu [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0055 (United States)

2016-10-01

We employ high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations focusing on a high-sigma peak and an average cosmological field at z ∼ 6–12 in order to investigate the influence of environment and baryonic feedback on galaxy evolution in the reionization epoch. Strong feedback, e.g., galactic winds, caused by elevated star formation rates (SFRs) is expected to play an important role in this evolution. We compare different outflow prescriptions: (i) constant wind velocity (CW), (ii) variable wind scaling with galaxy properties (VW), and (iii) no outflows (NW). The overdensity leads to accelerated evolution of dark matter and baryonic structures, absent from the “normal” region, and to shallow galaxy stellar mass functions at the low-mass end. Although CW shows little dependence on the environment, the more physically motivated VW model does exhibit this effect. In addition, VW can reproduce the observed specific SFR (sSFR) and the sSFR–stellar mass relation, which CW and NW fail to satisfy simultaneously. Winds also differ substantially in affecting the state of the intergalactic medium (IGM). The difference lies in the volume-filling factor of hot, high-metallicity gas, which is near unity for CW, while such gas remains confined in massive filaments for VW, and locked up in galaxies for NW. Such gas is nearly absent from the normal region. Although all wind models suffer from deficiencies, the VW model seems to be promising in correlating the outflow properties with those of host galaxies. Further constraints on the state of the IGM at high z are needed to separate different wind models.

An Investigation of the Sources of Earth-directed Solar Wind during Carrington Rotation 2053

Science.gov (United States)

Fazakerley, A. N.; Harra, L. K.; van Driel-Gesztelyi, L.

2016-06-01

In this work we analyze multiple sources of solar wind through a full Carrington Rotation (CR 2053) by analyzing the solar data through spectroscopic observations of the plasma upflow regions and the in situ data of the wind itself. Following earlier authors, we link solar and in situ observations by a combination of ballistic backmapping and potential-field source-surface modeling. We find three sources of fast solar wind that are low-latitude coronal holes. The coronal holes do not produce a steady fast wind, but rather a wind with rapid fluctuations. The coronal spectroscopic data from Hinode’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer show a mixture of upflow and downflow regions highlighting the complexity of the coronal hole, with the upflows being dominant. There is a mix of open and multi-scale closed magnetic fields in this region whose (interchange) reconnections are consistent with the up- and downflows they generate being viewed through an optically thin corona, and with the strahl directions and freeze-in temperatures found in in situ data. At the boundary of slow and fast wind streams there are three short periods of enhanced-velocity solar wind, which we term intermediate based on their in situ characteristics. These are related to active regions that are located beside coronal holes. The active regions have different magnetic configurations, from bipolar through tripolar to quadrupolar, and we discuss the mechanisms to produce this intermediate wind, and the important role that the open field of coronal holes adjacent to closed-field active regions plays in the process.

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE SOURCES OF EARTH-DIRECTED SOLAR WIND DURING CARRINGTON ROTATION 2053

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fazakerley, A. N.; Harra, L. K.; Van Driel-Gesztelyi, L., E-mail: a.fazakerley@ucl.ac.uk [Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London (United Kingdom)

2016-06-01

In this work we analyze multiple sources of solar wind through a full Carrington Rotation (CR 2053) by analyzing the solar data through spectroscopic observations of the plasma upflow regions and the in situ data of the wind itself. Following earlier authors, we link solar and in situ observations by a combination of ballistic backmapping and potential-field source-surface modeling. We find three sources of fast solar wind that are low-latitude coronal holes. The coronal holes do not produce a steady fast wind, but rather a wind with rapid fluctuations. The coronal spectroscopic data from Hinode ’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer show a mixture of upflow and downflow regions highlighting the complexity of the coronal hole, with the upflows being dominant. There is a mix of open and multi-scale closed magnetic fields in this region whose (interchange) reconnections are consistent with the up- and downflows they generate being viewed through an optically thin corona, and with the strahl directions and freeze-in temperatures found in in situ data. At the boundary of slow and fast wind streams there are three short periods of enhanced-velocity solar wind, which we term intermediate based on their in situ characteristics. These are related to active regions that are located beside coronal holes. The active regions have different magnetic configurations, from bipolar through tripolar to quadrupolar, and we discuss the mechanisms to produce this intermediate wind, and the important role that the open field of coronal holes adjacent to closed-field active regions plays in the process.

The Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) toolkit (Presentation)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Caroline Draxl: NREL

2014-01-01

Regional wind integration studies require detailed wind power output data at many locations to perform simulations of how the power system will operate under high penetration scenarios. The wind datasets that serve as inputs into the study must realistically reflect the ramping characteristics, spatial and temporal correlations, and capacity factors of the simulated wind plants, as well as being time synchronized with available load profiles.As described in this presentation, the WIND Toolkit fulfills these requirements by providing a state-of-the-art national (US) wind resource, power production and forecast dataset.

On the use of mass-conserving wind fields in chemistry-transport models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. Bregman

2003-01-01

Full Text Available A new method has been developed that provides mass-conserving wind fields for global chemistry-transport models. In previous global Eulerian modeling studies a mass-imbalance was found between the model mass transport and the surface pressure tendencies. Several methods have been suggested to correct for this imbalance, but so far no satisfactory solution has been found. Our new method solves these problems by using the wind fields in a spherical harmonical form (divergence and vorticity by mimicing the physics of the weather forecast model as closely as possible. A 3-D chemistry-transport model was used to show that the calculated ozone fields with the new processing method agree remarkably better with ozone observations in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. In addition, the calculated age of air in the lower stratosphere show better agreement with observations, although the air remains still too young in the extra-tropical stratosphere.

Wind tunnel and field assessment of pollen dispersal in soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.].

Science.gov (United States)

Yoshimura, Yasuyuki

2011-01-01

Although genetically modified (GM) soybean has never been cultivated commercially in Japan, it is essential to set up the isolation distance required to prevent out-crossing between GM and conventional soybean in preparation for any future possibility of pollen transfer. The airborne soybean pollen was sampled using some Durham pollen samplers located in the range of 20 m from the field edge. In addition, the dispersal distance was assessed in a wind tunnel under constant air flow and then it was compared with the anticipated distances based on the pollen diameter. In the field, the maximum pollen density per day observed was 1.235 grains cm(-2) day(-1) at three observation points within 2.5 m from the field and inside the field the mean density did not reach the rate of 1 grain cm(-2 )day(-1) during 19 flowering days. The results of the wind tunnel experiment also showed that the plants had almost no airborne release of pollen and the dispersal distance was shorter than theoretical value due to clustered dispersal. This study showed little airborne pollen in and around the soybean field and the dispersal is restricted to a small area. Therefore, wind-mediated pollination appears to be negligible.

SMART wind turbine rotor. Design and field test

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Berg, Jonathan Charles; Resor, Brian Ray; Paquette, Joshua A.; White, Jonathan Randall

2014-01-01

The Wind Energy Technologies department at Sandia National Laboratories has developed and field tested a wind turbine rotor with integrated trailing-edge flaps designed for active control of rotor aerodynamics. The SMART Rotor project was funded by the Wind and Water Power Technologies Office of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and was conducted to demonstrate active rotor control and evaluate simulation tools available for active control research. This report documents the design, fabrication, and testing of the SMART Rotor. This report begins with an overview of active control research at Sandia and the objectives of this project. The SMART blade, based on the DOE / SNL 9-meter CX-100 blade design, is then documented including all modifications necessary to integrate the trailing edge flaps, sensors incorporated into the system, and the fabrication processes that were utilized. Finally the test site and test campaign are described.

Best Practices for Wind Energy Development in the Great Lakes Region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pebbles, Victoria; Hummer, John; Haven, Celia

2011-07-19

This report offers a menu of 18 different, yet complementary, preferred practices and policies. The best practices cover all phases of the wind energy development process - from the policies that allow for wind development, to the sustainable operation of a wind project, to the best practices for decommissioning a spent turbine - including applications for offshore wind. Each best practice describes the opportunities and challenges (pros and cons), and offers a case example that illustrates how that best practice is being utilized by a particular jurisdiction or wind project. The practices described in this publication were selected by a diverse group of interests from the Great Lakes Wind Collaborative that included environmental groups, industry, academia, and federal, state and local government regulators. The practices were identified through a year-long process that included a literature review, online survey and interviews with individuals from the public, private and non-profit sectors. Optimally, a suite of these best practices would be applied in an appropriate combination to fit the conditions of a particular wind project or a set of wind projects within a given locality or region.

Statistical analysis of wind power in the region of Veracruz (Mexico)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cancino-Solorzano, Yoreley [Departamento de Ing Electrica-Electronica, Instituto Tecnologico de Veracruz, Calzada Miguel A. de Quevedo 2779, 91860 Veracruz (Mexico); Xiberta-Bernat, Jorge [Departamento de Energia, Escuela Tecnica Superior de Ingenieros de Minas, Universidad de Oviedo, C/Independencia, 13, 2a Planta, 33004 Oviedo (Spain)

2009-06-15

The capacity of the Mexican electricity sector faces the challenge of satisfying the demand of the 80 GW forecast by 2016. This value supposes a steady yearly average increase of some 4.9%. The electricity sector increases for the next eight years will be mainly made up of combined cycle power plants which could be a threat to the energy supply of the country due to the fact that the country is not self-sufficient in natural gas. As an alternative wind energy resource could be a more suitable option compared with combined cycle power plants. This option is backed by market trends indicating that wind technology costs will continue to decrease in the near future as has happened in recent years. Evaluation of the eolic potential in different areas of the country must be carried out in order to achieve the best use possible of this option. This paper gives a statistical analysis of the wind characteristics in the region of Veracruz. The daily, monthly and annual wind speed values have been studied together with their prevailing direction. The data analyzed correspond to five meteorological stations and two anemometric stations located in the aforementioned area. (author)

Statistical analysis of wind power in the region of Veracruz (Mexico)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cancino-Solorzano, Yoreley; Xiberta-Bernat, Jorge

2009-01-01

The capacity of the Mexican electricity sector faces the challenge of satisfying the demand of the 80 GW forecast by 2016. This value supposes a steady yearly average increase of some 4.9%. The electricity sector increases for the next eight years will be mainly made up of combined cycle power plants which could be a threat to the energy supply of the country due to the fact that the country is not self-sufficient in natural gas. As an alternative wind energy resource could be a more suitable option compared with combined cycle power plants. This option is backed by market trends indicating that wind technology costs will continue to decrease in the near future as has happened in recent years. Evaluation of the eolic potential in different areas of the country must be carried out in order to achieve the best use possible of this option. This paper gives a statistical analysis of the wind characteristics in the region of Veracruz. The daily, monthly and annual wind speed values have been studied together with their prevailing direction. The data analyzed correspond to five meteorological stations and two anemometric stations located in the aforementioned area. (author)

Potential of carbon mitigation by vertical axis wind turbines in urban regions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pope, K.; Naterer, G.F.

2009-01-01

The potential of greenhouse gas reduction with vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) in urban centers is examined in this paper. Four different wind turbine designs are compared, in terms of greenhouse gas reduction and specific energy distribution of the wind energy resource. A VAWT can potentially improve power generation capability in turbulent regions, where wind conditions can be represented by an exponential function. Results are presented to demonstrate that a VAWT covering one square metre, installed in 50% of Toronto residential dwellings, could mitigate between 29,193 and 138,741 tonnes of CO 2 per year. (author)

Wind field and trajectory models for tornado-propelled objects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon

1978-01-01

This report contains the results of the second phase of a research program which has as its objective the development of a mathematical model to predict the trajectory of tornado-borne objects postulated to be in the vicinity of nuclear power plants. An improved tornado wind field model satisfies the no-slip ground boundary condition of fluid mechanics and includes the functional dependence of eddy viscosity with altitude. Sub-scale wind tunnel data are obtained for all of the missiles currently specified for nuclear plant design. Confirmatory full-scale data are obtained for a 12-inch pipe and automobile. The original six-degree-of-freedom trajectory model is modified to include the improved wind field and increased capability as to body shapes and inertial characteristics that can be handled. The improved trajectory model is used to calculate maximum credible speeds, which for all of the heavy missiles are considerably less than those currently specified for design. Equivalent coefficients for use in three-degree-of-freedom models are developed and the sensitivity of range and speed to various trajectory parameters for the 12-inch diameter pipe is examined

Average thermospheric wind patterns over the polar regions, as observed by CHAMP

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. Lühr

2007-06-01

Full Text Available Measurements of the CHAMP accelerometer are utilized to investigate the average thermospheric wind distribution in the polar regions at altitudes around 400 km. This study puts special emphasis on the seasonal differences in the wind patterns. For this purpose 131 days centered on the June solstice of 2003 are considered. Within that period CHAMP's orbit is precessing once through all local times. The cross-track wind estimates of all 2030 passes are used to construct mean wind vectors for 918 equal-area cells. These bin averages are presented in corrected geomagnetic coordinates. Both hemispheres are considered simultaneously providing summer and winter responses for the same prevailing geophysical conditions. The period under study is characterized by high magnetic activity (Kp=4− but moderate solar flux level (F10.7=124. Our analysis reveals clear wind features in the summer (Northern Hemisphere. Over the polar cap there is a fast day-to-night flow with mean speeds surpassing 600 m/s in the dawn sector. At auroral latitudes we find strong westward zonal winds on the dawn side. On the dusk side, however, an anti-cyclonic vortex is forming. The dawn/dusk asymmetry is attributed to the combined action of Coriolis and centrifugal forces. Along the auroral oval the sunward streaming plasma causes a stagnation of the day-to-night wind. This effect is particularly clear on the dusk side. On the dawn side it is evident only from midnight to 06:00 MLT. The winter (Southern Hemisphere reveals similar wind features, but they are less well ordered. The mean day-to-night wind over the polar cap is weaker by about 35%. Otherwise, the seasonal differences are mainly confined to the dayside (06:00–18:00 MLT. In addition, the larger offset between geographic and geomagnetic pole in the south also causes hemispheric differences of the thermospheric wind distribution.

Average thermospheric wind patterns over the polar regions, as observed by CHAMP

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. Lühr

2007-06-01

Full Text Available Measurements of the CHAMP accelerometer are utilized to investigate the average thermospheric wind distribution in the polar regions at altitudes around 400 km. This study puts special emphasis on the seasonal differences in the wind patterns. For this purpose 131 days centered on the June solstice of 2003 are considered. Within that period CHAMP's orbit is precessing once through all local times. The cross-track wind estimates of all 2030 passes are used to construct mean wind vectors for 918 equal-area cells. These bin averages are presented in corrected geomagnetic coordinates. Both hemispheres are considered simultaneously providing summer and winter responses for the same prevailing geophysical conditions. The period under study is characterized by high magnetic activity (K_p=4− but moderate solar flux level (F10.7=124. Our analysis reveals clear wind features in the summer (Northern Hemisphere. Over the polar cap there is a fast day-to-night flow with mean speeds surpassing 600 m/s in the dawn sector. At auroral latitudes we find strong westward zonal winds on the dawn side. On the dusk side, however, an anti-cyclonic vortex is forming. The dawn/dusk asymmetry is attributed to the combined action of Coriolis and centrifugal forces. Along the auroral oval the sunward streaming plasma causes a stagnation of the day-to-night wind. This effect is particularly clear on the dusk side. On the dawn side it is evident only from midnight to 06:00 MLT. The winter (Southern Hemisphere reveals similar wind features, but they are less well ordered. The mean day-to-night wind over the polar cap is weaker by about 35%. Otherwise, the seasonal differences are mainly confined to the dayside (06:00–18:00 MLT. In addition, the larger offset between geographic and geomagnetic pole in the south also causes hemispheric differences of the thermospheric wind distribution.

The role of wind field induced flow velocities in destratification and hypoxia reduction at Meiling Bay of large shallow Lake Taihu, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Jalil, Abdul; Li, Yiping; Du, Wei; Wang, Wencai; Wang, Jianwei; Gao, Xiaomeng; Khan, Hafiz Osama Sarwar; Pan, Baozhu; Acharya, Kumud

2018-01-01

Wind induced flow velocity patterns and associated thermal destratification can drive to hypoxia reduction in large shallow lakes. The effects of wind induced hydrodynamic changes on destratification and hypoxia reduction were investigated at the Meiling bay (N 31° 22' 56.4″, E 120° 9' 38.3″) of Lake Taihu, China. Vertical flow velocity profile analysis showed surface flow velocities consistency with the wind field and lower flow velocity profiles were also consistent (but with delay response time) when the wind speed was higher than 6.2 m/s. Wind field and temperature found the control parameters for hypoxia reduction and for water quality conditions at the surface and bottom profiles of lake. The critical temperature for hypoxia reduction at the surface and the bottom profile was ≤24.1C° (below which hypoxic conditions were found reduced). Strong prevailing wind field (onshore wind directions ESE, SE, SSE and E, wind speed ranges of 2.4-9.1 m/s) reduced the temperature (22C° to 24.1C°) caused reduction of hypoxia at the near surface with a rise in water levels whereas, low to medium prevailing wind field did not supported destratification which increased temperature resulting in increased hypoxia. Non-prevailing wind directions (offshore) were not found supportive for the reduction of hypoxia in study area due to less variable wind field. Daytime wind field found more variable (as compared to night time) which increased the thermal destratification during daytime and found supportive for destratification and hypoxia reduction. The second order exponential correlation found between surface temperature and Chlorophyll-a (R 2 : 0.2858, Adjusted R-square: 0.2144 RMSE: 4.395), Dissolved Oxygen (R 2 : 0.596, Adjusted R-square: 0.5942, RMSE: 0.3042) concentrations. The findings of the present study reveal the driving mechanism of wind induced thermal destratification and hypoxic conditions, which may further help to evaluate the wind role in eutrophication

An assessment on seasonal analysis of wind energy characteristics and wind turbine characteristics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Akpinar, E. Kavak; Akpinar, S.

2005-01-01

This paper presents seasonal variations of the wind characteristics and wind turbine characteristics in the regions around Elazig, namely Maden, Agin and Keban. Mean wind speed data in measured hourly time series format is statistically analyzed for the six year period 1998-2003. The probability density distributions are derived from the time series data and their distributional parameters are identified. Two probability density functions are fitted to the measured probability distributions on a seasonal basis. The wind energy characteristics of all the regions is studied based on the Weibull and Rayleigh distributions. Energy calculations and capacity factors for the wind turbine characteristics were determined for wind machines of different sizes between 300 and 2300 kW. It was found that Maden is the best region, among the regions analyzed, for wind characteristics and wind turbine characteristics

Satellite information for wind energy applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, M.; Astrup, Poul; Hasager, Charlotte Bay

2004-01-01

An introduction to satellite information relevant for wind energy applications is given. It includes digital elevation model (DEM) data based on satellite observations. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) is useful for regional scale wind resourcestudies. Comparison results from complex...... terrain in Spain and flat terrain in Denmark are found to be acceptable for both sites. Also land cover type information can be retrieved from satellite observations. Land cover type maps have to be combined withroughness data from field observation or literature values. Land cover type maps constitute...... an aid to map larger regions within shorter time. Field site observations of obstacles and hedges are still necessary. The raster-based map information from DEMand land cover maps can be converted for use in WASP. For offshore locations it is possible to estimate the wind resources based on ocean surface...

Residents' attitudes to proposed wind farms in the West Coast region of South Africa: A social perspective from the South

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lombard, Andrea; Ferreira, Sanette

2014-01-01

The West Coast Region (WCR) of the Western Cape Province in South Africa is earmarked for 13 onshore wind farm projects totaling approximately 700 wind turbines. The developed world debate about the social acceptance of wind farm projects has impeded and illuminated a number of these developments. This paper is aimed at understanding people's reaction to proposed wind farm projects in the WCR – a region of a developing country – and to investigate whether the reasoning behind opposition to or acceptance of wind farm projects is similar to the discourse on the topic by scholars in the developed world. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect primary data by semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire survey. A spatial dimension was added through a map-based approach. Reactions by WCR residents to the wind farm projects were mainly positive, although some opposition was detected. International scholarship holds that place attachment serves as a reason for opposition to wind farm projects. Although most of the WCR residents had strong place attachments to their region, most of the respondents also supported the proposed wind farm projects. - Highlights: • A case study on social acceptance of proposed wind farm projects in South Africa is discussed. • The main focus is on the relation between place attachment and social acceptance or rejection of wind farm projects. • The results of the study correspond to the findings on place attachment and wind farm projects in the developed world

Adaptive Control of a Utility-Scale Wind Turbine Operating in Region 3

Science.gov (United States)

Frost, Susan A.; Balas, Mark J.; Wright, Alan D.

2009-01-01

Adaptive control techniques are well suited to nonlinear applications, such as wind turbines, which are difficult to accurately model and which have effects from poorly known operating environments. The turbulent and unpredictable conditions in which wind turbines operate create many challenges for their operation. In this paper, we design an adaptive collective pitch controller for a high-fidelity simulation of a utility scale, variable-speed horizontal axis wind turbine. The objective of the adaptive pitch controller in Region 3 is to regulate generator speed and reject step disturbances. The control objective is accomplished by collectively pitching the turbine blades. We use an extension of the Direct Model Reference Adaptive Control (DMRAC) approach to track a reference point and to reject persistent disturbances. The turbine simulation models the Controls Advanced Research Turbine (CART) of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. The CART is a utility-scale wind turbine which has a well-developed and extensively verified simulator. The adaptive collective pitch controller for Region 3 was compared in simulations with a bas celliansesical Proportional Integrator (PI) collective pitch controller. In the simulations, the adaptive pitch controller showed improved speed regulation in Region 3 when compared with the baseline PI pitch controller and it demonstrated robustness to modeling errors.

Quantifying offshore wind resources from satellite wind maps: Study area the North Sea

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hasager, Charlotte Bay; Barthelmie, Rebecca Jane; Christiansen, Merete B.

2006-01-01

Offshore wind resources are quantified from satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and satellite scatterometer observations at local and regional scale respectively at the Horns Rev site in Denmark. The method for wind resource estimation from satellite observations interfaces with the wind atlas...... of the Horns Rev wind farm is quantified from satellite SAR images and compared with state-of-the-art wake model results with good agreement. It is a unique method using satellite observations to quantify the spatial extent of the wake behind large offshore wind farms. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd....... analysis and application program (WAsP). An estimate of the wind resource at the new project site at Horns Rev is given based on satellite SAR observations. The comparison of offshore satellite scatterometer winds, global model data and in situ data shows good agreement. Furthermore, the wake effect...

Fast Winds and Mass Loss from Metal-Poor Field Giants

Science.gov (United States)

Dupree, A. K.; Smith, Graeme H.; Strader, Jay

2009-11-01

Echelle spectra of the infrared He I λ10830 line were obtained with NIRSPEC on the Keck 2 telescope for 41 metal-deficient field giant stars including those on the red giant branch (RGB), asymptotic giant branch (AGB), and red horizontal branch (RHB). The presence of this He I line is ubiquitous in stars with T effgsim 4500 K and MV fainter than -1.5, and reveals the dynamics of the atmosphere. The line strength increases with effective temperature for T effgsim 5300 K in RHB stars. In AGB and RGB stars, the line strength increases with luminosity. Fast outflows (gsim 60 km s-1) are detected from the majority of the stars and about 40% of the outflows have sufficient speed as to allow escape of material from the star as well as from a globular cluster. Outflow speeds and line strengths do not depend on metallicity for our sample ([Fe/H]= -0.7 to -3.0), suggesting the driving mechanism for these winds derives from magnetic and/or hydrodynamic processes. Gas outflows are present in every luminous giant, but are not detected in all stars of lower luminosity indicating possible variability. Mass loss rates ranging from ~3 × 10-10 to ~6 × 10-8 M sun yr-1 estimated from the Sobolev approximation for line formation represent values with evolutionary significance for red giants and RHB stars. We estimate that 0.2 M sun will be lost on the RGB, and the torque of this wind can account for observations of slowly rotating RHB stars in the field. About 0.1-0.2 M sun will be lost on the RHB itself. This first empirical determination of mass loss on the RHB may contribute to the appearance of extended horizontal branches in globular clusters. The spectra appear to resolve the problem of missing intracluster material in globular clusters. Opportunities exist for "wind smothering" of dwarf stars by winds from the evolved population, possibly leading to surface pollution in regions of high stellar density. Data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which

The thermal structure of a wind-driven Reynolds ridge

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Phongikaroon, Supathorn; Peter Judd, K.; Smith, Geoffrey B.; Handler, Robert A. [Remote Sensing Division, Naval Research Laboratory, 20375, Washington, DC (United States)

2004-08-01

In this study, we investigate the nature of a Reynolds ridge formed by wind shear. We have simultaneously imaged the water surface, with a deposit of a monolayer of the surfactant, oleyl alcohol, subject to different wind shears, by using a high-resolution infrared (IR) detector and a high-speed (HS) digital camera. The results reveal that the regions around the wind-driven Reynolds ridge, which have subtle manifestations in visual imagery, possess surprisingly complex hydrodynamical and thermal structures when observed in the infrared. The IR measurements reveal a warm, clean region upstream of the ridge, which is composed of the so called fishscale structures observed in earlier investigations. The region downstream of the ridge is composed of colder fluid which forms two counter-rotating cells. A region of intermediate temperature, which we call the mixing (wake) region, forms immediately downstream of the ridge near the channel centerline. By measuring the velocity of the advected fishscales, we have determined a surface drift speed of about 2% of the wind speed. The spanwise length-scale of the structures has also been used to estimate the wind shear. In addition, a comparison of IR and visual imagery shows that the thermal field is a very sensitive indicator of the exact position of the ridge itself. (orig.)

A numerical study of the wave shoaling effect on wind-wave momentum flux

Science.gov (United States)

Hao, Xuanting; Shen, Lian

2017-11-01

Momentum transfer between wind and waves is crucial to many physical processes in air-sea interactions. For decades, there has been a number of observational evidence that the surface roughness in the nearshore region is notably higher than in the open sea. In order to explain the mechanism behind this important phenomenon, in particular the wave shoaling effect on surface roughness, we conduct a series of numerical experiments using the wind-wave module of WOW (Wave-Ocean-Wind), a high-fidelity computational framework developed in house. We use prescribed monochromatic waves with linear shoaling effect incorporated, while the wind field is simulated using wall-resolved large-eddy simulation. A comparison between a shallow water wave case and deep water wave cases shows remarkably stronger wave effects on the wind for the former. Detailed analyses show that the increased surface roughness is closely associated with the increased form drag that is mainly due to the reduced wave age in wave shoaling.

On the flow, thermal field and winds along the western continental shelf of India

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Antony, M.K.; Shenoi, S.S.C.

drift will be in phase with the density field or in geostrophic balance. The instrusion of the Bay of 438 M.K. ANTONY and S. S. C. SHENOI Bengal water (less dense than the Arabian Sea water) into the Arabian Sea along the shelf/slope region (SARMA et... flows during May and November are in geostrophic balance or not. For this purpose we used the thermal wind equation Or_-g Op (1) Oz f Ox and substituted the observed values for the average shear (Ov/Oz) and cross-shore density gradient (Op...

Superconducting wind turbine generators

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mijatovic, Nenad

cryostat design, where a concept with 20 W of heat transfer is achieved. Following the setup description, the focus turns to the electromagnetic design of the HTS machine. Particularly, an approach to increase the performance of HTS coils and the influence of the armature reaction to the HTS field winding...... magnetic characteristic with respect to the critical current. I have showed that the potential for the reduction of HTS conductor can be significant, if the coils are placed strategically, whereby the coils wound with BSCCO performed 40% better depending on the placement in the field winding. The 2G coils...... were less sensitive to the placement which made them particularly useful for high magnetic field regions in the eld winding. The second design approach proposed and tested was to use multiple current supplies which allowed each coil to operate close to its critical current. I have demonstrated...

A model to relate wind tunnel measurements to open field odorant emissions from liquid area sources

Science.gov (United States)

Lucernoni, F.; Capelli, L.; Busini, V.; Sironi, S.

2017-05-01

Waste Water Treatment Plants are known to have significant emissions of several pollutants and odorants causing nuisance to the near-living population. One of the purposes of the present work is to study a suitable model to evaluate odour emissions from liquid passive area sources. First, the models describing volatilization under a forced convection regime inside a wind tunnel device, which is the sampling device that typically used for sampling on liquid area sources, were investigated. In order to relate the fluid dynamic conditions inside the hood to the open field and inside the hood a thorough study of the models capable of describing the volatilization phenomena of the odorous compounds from liquid pools was performed and several different models were evaluated for the open field emission. By means of experimental tests involving pure liquid acetone and pure liquid butanone, it was verified that the model more suitable to describe precisely the volatilization inside the sampling hood is the model for the emission from a single flat plate in forced convection and laminar regime, with a fluid dynamic boundary layer fully developed and a mass transfer boundary layer not fully developed. The proportionality coefficient for the model was re-evaluated in order to account for the specific characteristics of the adopted wind tunnel device, and then the model was related with the selected model for the open field thereby computing the wind speed at 10 m that would cause the same emission that is estimated from the wind tunnel measurement furthermore, the field of application of the proposed model was clearly defined for the considered models during the project, discussing the two different kinds of compounds commonly found in emissive liquid pools or liquid spills, i.e. gas phase controlled and liquid phase controlled compounds. Lastly, a discussion is presented comparing the presented approach for emission rates recalculation in the field, with other approaches

Sensitivity Analysis of Expected Wind Extremes over the Northwestern Sahara and High Atlas Region.

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia-Bustamante, E.; González-Rouco, F. J.; Navarro, J.

2017-12-01

A robust statistical framework in the scientific literature allows for the estimation of probabilities of occurrence of severe wind speeds and wind gusts, but does not prevent however from large uncertainties associated with the particular numerical estimates. An analysis of such uncertainties is thus required. A large portion of this uncertainty arises from the fact that historical observations are inherently shorter that the timescales of interest for the analysis of return periods. Additional uncertainties stem from the different choices of probability distributions and other aspects related to methodological issues or physical processes involved. The present study is focused on historical observations over the Ouarzazate Valley (Morocco) and in a high-resolution regional simulation of the wind in the area of interest. The aim is to provide extreme wind speed and wind gust return values and confidence ranges based on a systematic sampling of the uncertainty space for return periods up to 120 years.

Prospects for generating electricity by large onshore and offshore wind farms

Science.gov (United States)

Volker, Patrick J. H.; Hahmann, Andrea N.; Badger, Jake; Jørgensen, Hans E.

2017-03-01

The decarbonisation of energy sources requires additional investments in renewable technologies, including the installation of onshore and offshore wind farms. For wind energy to remain competitive, wind farms must continue to provide low-cost power even when covering larger areas. Inside very large wind farms, winds can decrease considerably from their free-stream values to a point where an equilibrium wind speed is reached. The magnitude of this equilibrium wind speed is primarily dependent on the balance between turbine drag force and the downward momentum influx from above the wind farm. We have simulated for neutral atmospheric conditions, the wind speed field inside different wind farms that range from small (25 km2) to very large (105 km2) in three regions with distinct wind speed and roughness conditions. Our results show that the power density of very large wind farms depends on the local free-stream wind speed, the surface characteristics, and the turbine density. In onshore regions with moderate winds the power density of very large wind farms reaches 1 W m-2, whereas in offshore regions with very strong winds it exceeds 3 W m-2. Despite a relatively low power density, onshore regions with moderate winds offer potential locations for very large wind farms. In offshore regions, clusters of smaller wind farms are generally preferable; under very strong winds also very large offshore wind farms become efficient.

Regional Climate Modelling of the Western Iberian Low-Level Wind Jet

Science.gov (United States)

Soares, Pedro M. M.; Lima, Daniela C. A.; Cardoso, Rita M.; Semedo, Álvaro

2016-04-01

The Iberian coastal low-level jet (CLLJ) is one the less studied boundary layer wind jet features in the Eastern Boundary Currents Systems (EBCS). These regions are amongst the most productive ocean ecosystems, where the atmosphere-land-ocean feedbacks, which include marine boundary layer clouds, coastal jets, upwelling and inland soil temperature and moisture, play an important role in defining the regional climate along the sub-tropical mid-latitude western coastal areas. Recently, the present climate western Iberian CLLJ properties were extensively described using a high resolution regional climate hindcast simulation. A summer maximum frequency of occurrence above 30% was found, with mean maximum wind speeds around 15 ms-1, between 300 and 400m heights (at the jet core). Since the 1990s the climate change impact on the EBCS is being studied, nevertheless some lack of consensus still persists regarding the evolution of upwelling and other components of the climate system in these areas. However, recently some authors have shown that changes are to be expected concerning the timing, intensity and spatial homogeneity of coastal upwelling and of CLLJs, in response to future warming, especially at higher latitudes, namely in Iberia and Canaries. In this study, the first climate change assessment study regarding the Western Iberian CLLJ, using a high resolution (9km) regional climate simulation, is presented. The properties of this CLLJ are studied and compared using two 30 years simulations: one historical simulation for the 1971-2000 period, and another simulation for future climate, in agreement with the RCP8.5 scenario, for the 2071-2100 period. Robust and consistent changes are found: 1) the hourly frequency of occurrence of the CLLJ is expected to increase in summer along the western Iberian coast, from mean maximum values of around 35% to approximately 50%; 2) the relative increase of the CLLJ frequency of occurrence is higher in the north off western Iberia

Feasibility study of wind-generated electricity for rural applications in southwestern Ohio

Science.gov (United States)

Kohring, G. W.

The parameters associated with domestic production of wind generated electricity for direct use by small farms and rural homes in the southwestern Ohio region are discussed. The project involves direct utility interfaced electricity generation from a horizontal axis, down-wind, fixed pitch, wind powered induction generator system. Goals of the project are to determine: the ability to produce useful amounts of domestic wind generated electricity in the southwestern Ohio region; economic justification for domestic wind generated electrical production; and the potential of domestic wind generated electricity for reducing dependence on non-renewable energy resources in the southwestern Ohio region.

Ground-based Wind Field Construction from Mode-S and ADS-B Data with a Novel Gas Particle Model

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sun, J.; Vû, Huy; Ellerbroek, J.; Hoekstra, J.M.

2017-01-01

Wind is an important parameter in many air traffic management researches, as it often introduces significant uncertainties in aircraft performance studies and trajectory predictions. Obtaining accurate wind field information has always been a challenge due to the availability of weather sensors.

Environmental studies related to the operation of wind energy conversion systems. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rogers, S.E.; Cornaby, B.W.; Rodman, C.W.; Sticksel, P.R.; Tolle, D.A.

1977-12-01

This biophysical impact assessment explores the environmental consequences of the emerging wind energy conversion technology through field studies done at the DOE/NASA 100-kW Experimental Wind Turbine located at NASA Lewis Research Center's Plum Brook Station near Sandusky, Ohio. A micrometeorological field program monitored changes in the downwind wake of the wind turbine. Horizontal and/or vertical measurements of wind speed, temperature, carbon dioxide concentration, precipitation, and incident solar radiation showed measurable variation within the wake only for precipitation and wind speed. The changes were minor and not likely to result in any secondary effects to vegetation, including crops, because they are within the natural range of variability in the site environment. Effects are negligible beyond the physically altered area of the tower pad, access, and control structures. The wind turbine has not proved to be a high risk to airborne fauna, including the most vulnerable night-migrating songbirds. Behavioral studies indicate the birds will avoid the turbine if they can see it.

Wind Energy Resource Atlas. Volume 11. Hawaii and Pacific Islands Region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schroeder, T.A.; Hori, A.M.; Elliott, D.L.; Barchet, W.R.; George, R.L.

1981-02-01

This atlas of the wind energy resource is composed of introductory and background information, and assessments of the wind resource in each division of the region. Background on how the wind resource is assessed and on how the results of the assessment should be inerpreted is presented. An introduction and outline to the descriptions of the wind resource for each division are provided. Assessments for individual divisions are presented as separate chapters. Much of the information in the division chapters is given in graphic or tabular form. The sequences for each chapter are similar, but some presentations used for Hawaii are inappropriate or impractical for presentation with the Pacific Islands. Hawaii chapter figure and tables are cited below and appropriate Pacific Islands figure and table numbers are included in brackets ().

Development of a representative model of a wind turbine in order to study the installation of several machines on a wind park

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jourieh, M.

2007-12-01

This thesis is devoted to the study of aerodynamics in wind turbines. It is divided into two main parts, one is experimental, and the other deals with modelling and numerical simulation. The velocity field downstream from a three-bladed wind turbine with a horizontal axis is explored in the wind tunnel at ENSAM-Paris. Two measurement techniques are used: hot wire anemometry and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). Experimental work gives a clear idea of the structure of the near wake and provides useful data to validate the numerical simulations and the hybrid models which are studied in this thesis. In the work concerning numerical simulation, two hybrid models are defined and implemented: a model of actuator disc and a model of actuator cylinder, coupled with a simulation based on the numerical resolution of the Navier-Stokes equations. These models are validated by the power of the wind turbine and on the velocity field in the near wake of the rotor. The numerical results are compared with the experimental data resulting from the tests carried out by the NREL for NREL phase II and VI cases. The experimental and numerical velocity fields are also compared in the wake of a wind turbine Rutland 503. In both validation cases, power and wake, the experimental data are in accordance with the results provided by the hybrid models. After this validation, the interaction between several wind turbines is studied and quantified. The tested hybrid models are also used to study the interaction between identical wind turbines placed one behind the other. The obtained results highlight the effect of spacing between the machines as well as the effect of free stream velocity. (author)

Limitations of wind power availability over Europe: a conceptual study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Kiss

2008-11-01

Full Text Available Wind field statistics are evaluated from the ERA-40 data bank covering a period of 44 years with a temporal resolution of 6 h. Instantaneous wind speed values are provided in geographic cells of size 1°×1° (lat/long for surface (10 m and 1000 hPa pressure heights. Potential wind power generation is estimated in two steps. Firstly, the wind speed at hub height is approximated from surface data based on the statistical analysis of the wind and geopotential records for 1000 hPa pressure level. Secondly, the wind speed values are transformed by an idealised power curve fitted for measured data. The model time series are fed into various hypothetical electric networks. The main quantity of interest is the aggregated output from the networks. A reference power time series is determined for a static network connecting each continental site and an envelope of 1° around the shorelines (representing off-shore locations over Europe. This time series exhibits a low average value and a marked annual periodicity. Wind power integration over limited areas results in higher average outputs at the expense of stronger fluctuations. The long-range spatial correlations of the wind field limit the level of fluctuations strongly which can not be eliminated either by an increase of the area of integration or by dynamic control. This study is fully conceptual, however it demonstrates the limitations of wind power integration over Europe.

Linear Response of Field-Aligned Currents to the Interplanetary Electric Field

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Weimer, D. R.; R. Edwards, T.; Olsen, Nils

2017-01-01

Many studies that have shown that the ionospheric, polar cap electric potentials (PCEP) exhibit a “saturation” behavior in response to the level of the driving by the solar wind. As the magnitude of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) and electric field (IEF) increase, the PCEP response...... of the field-aligned currents (FAC) with the solar wind/magnetosphere/ionosphere system has a role. As the FAC are more difficult to measure, their behavior in response to the level of the IEF has not been investigated as thoroughly. In order to resolve the question of whether or not the FAC also exhibit...... saturation, we have processed the magnetic field measurements from the Ørsted, CHAMP, and Swarm missions, spanning more than a decade. As the amount of current in each region needs to be known, a new technique is used to separate and sum the current by region, widely known as R0, R1, and R2. These totals...

Field experiments on seed dispersal by wind in ten umbelliferous species (Apiaceae)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jongejans, E.; Telenius, A.

2001-01-01

This report presents data from experiments on seed dispersal by wind for ten species of the family Apiaceae. Seed shadows were obtained in the field under natural conditions, using wind speeds between four and ten m/s. The flight of individual seeds was followed by eye, and seed shadows were

The Solar Wind Source Cycle: Relationship to Dynamo Behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Luhmann, J. G.; Li, Y.; Lee, C. O.; Jian, L. K.; Petrie, G. J. D.; Arge, C. N.

2017-12-01

Solar cycle trends of interest include the evolving properties of the solar wind, the heliospheric medium through which the Sun's plasmas and fields interact with Earth and the planets -including the evolution of CME/ICMEs enroute. Solar wind sources include the coronal holes-the open field regions that constantly evolve with solar magnetic fields as the cycle progresses, and the streamers between them. The recent cycle has been notably important in demonstrating that not all solar cycles are alike when it comes to contributions from these sources, including in the case of ecliptic solar wind. In particular, it has modified our appreciation of the low latitude coronal hole and streamer sources because of their relative prevalence. One way to understand the basic relationship between these source differences and what is happening inside the Sun and on its surface is to use observation-based models like the PFSS model to evaluate the evolution of the coronal field geometry. Although the accuracy of these models is compromised around solar maximum by lack of global surface field information and the sometimes non-potential evolution of the field related to more frequent and widespread emergence of active regions, they still approximate the character of the coronal field state. We use these models to compare the inferred recent cycle coronal holes and streamer belt sources of solar wind with past cycle counterparts. The results illustrate how (still) hemispherically asymmetric weak polar fields maintain a complex mix of low-to-mid latitude solar wind sources throughout the latest cycle, with a related marked asymmetry in the hemispheric distribution of the ecliptic wind sources. This is likely to be repeated until the polar field strength significantly increases relative to the fields at low latitudes, and the latter symmetrize.

Monitoring, modeling and mitigating impacts of wind farms on local meteorology

Science.gov (United States)

Baidya Roy, Somnath; Traiteur, Justin; Kelley, Neil

2010-05-01

Wind power is one of the fastest growing sources of energy. Most of the growth is in the industrial sector comprising of large utility-scale wind farms. Recent modeling studies have suggested that such wind farms can significantly affect local and regional weather and climate. In this work, we present observational evidence of the impact of wind farms on near-surface air temperatures. Data from perhaps the only meteorological field campaign in an operational wind farm shows that downwind temperatures are lower during the daytime and higher at night compared to the upwind environment. Corresponding radiosonde profiles at the nearby Edwards Air Force Base WMO meteorological station show that the diurnal environment is unstable while the nocturnal environment is stable during the field campaign. This behavior is consistent with the hypothesis proposed by Baidya Roy et al. (JGR 2004) that states that turbulence generated in the wake of rotors enhance vertical mixing leading to a warming/cooling under positive/negative potential temperature lapse rates. We conducted a set of 306 simulations with the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) to test if regional climate models can capture the thermal effects of wind farms. We represented wind turbines with a subgrid parameterization that assumes rotors to be sinks of momentum and sources of turbulence. The simulated wind farms consistently generated a localized warming/cooling under positive/negative lapse rates as hypothesized. We found that these impacts are inversely correlated with background atmospheric boundary layer turbulence. Thus, if the background turbulence is high due to natural processes, the effects of additional turbulence generated by wind turbine rotors are likely to be small. We propose the following strategies to minimize impacts of wind farms: • Engineering solution: design rotors that generate less turbulence in their wakes. Sensitivity simulations show that these turbines also increase the

Study of a wind energy conversion system in New Hampshire

Science.gov (United States)

Lockwood, J.; Kraft, G.; Pregent, G.; Smukler, L.

1981-08-01

Concern over conventional energy costs and supplies is currently strong, particularly in New England region where eighty percent of the total energy is oil based; furthermore, forty percent of this region's total energy is OPEC oil. These figures contrast with national averages of forty-seven and thirteen percent, respectively (1). The quest to develop alternative and renewable energy sources indigenous to New England is understandable in light of these figures. The wind is one such source. The study of wind energy can be divided into three basic areas; these are technical, legal-institutional, and financial. The technical area encompasses collection and analysis of wind data, selection and installation of wind turbines and peripheral equipment, and operation and maintenance. The legal-institutional area encompasses the resolution of such issues as land use policies, power contracts, and state and federal regulations. The financial area encompasses the examination of investment opportunities made available by various site-machine combinations and the selling of such opportunities to the investment community.

Modified Adaptive Control for Region 3 Operation in the Presence of Wind Turbine Structural Modes

Science.gov (United States)

Frost, Susan Alane; Balas, Mark J.; Wright, Alan D.

2010-01-01

Many challenges exist for the operation of wind turbines in an efficient manner that is reliable and avoids component fatigue and failure. Turbines operate in highly turbulent environments resulting in aerodynamic loads that can easily excite turbine structural modes, possibly causing component fatigue and failure. Wind turbine manufacturers are highly motivated to reduce component fatigue and failure that can lead to loss of revenue due to turbine down time and maintenance costs. The trend in wind turbine design is toward larger, more flexible turbines that are ideally suited to adaptive control methods due to the complexity and expense required to create accurate models of their dynamic characteristics. In this paper, we design an adaptive collective pitch controller for a high-fidelity simulation of a utility-scale, variable-speed horizontal axis wind turbine operating in Region 3. The objective of the adaptive pitch controller is to regulate generator speed, accommodate wind gusts, and reduce the excitation of structural modes in the wind turbine. The control objective is accomplished by collectively pitching the turbine blades. The adaptive collective pitch controller for Region 3 was compared in simulations with a baseline classical Proportional Integrator (PI) collective pitch controller. The adaptive controller will demonstrate the ability to regulate generator speed in Region 3, while accommodating gusts, and reducing the excitation of certain structural modes in the wind turbine.

Wind response in the lower thermosphere to the geomagnetic storm on March, 1989

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kazimirovskij, Eh.S.; Vergasova, G.V.

1991-01-01

The horizontal wind response in the ionospheric D region above Irkutsk to the geomagnetic storm on March 13, 1989 is studied. The geomagnetic storm response is expressed through a stability loss of the wind system, a great speed increase of the meridional and zonal wind, in particular, and their dispersions, respectively, as well as changes in the semidaily tidal phase. The proof of the fact that the Earth magnetic field disturbances destabilize the system of horizontal winds in the lower ionosphere is given

INTERVALS OF RADIAL INTERPLANETARY MAGNETIC FIELDS AT 1 AU, THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH RAREFACTION REGIONS, AND THEIR APPARENT MAGNETIC FOOT POINTS AT THE SUN

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Orlove, Steven T.; Smith, Charles W.; Vasquez, Bernard J.; Schwadron, Nathan A. [Physics Department and Space Science Center, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States); Skoug, Ruth M. [Los Alamos National Laboratory, MS D466, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States); Zurbuchen, Thomas H.; Zhao Liang, E-mail: stx33@wildcats.unh.edu, E-mail: Charles.Smith@unh.edu, E-mail: Bernie.Vasquez@unh.edu, E-mail: N.Schwadron@unh.edu, E-mail: rskoug@lanl.gov, E-mail: thomasz@umich.edu, E-mail: lzh@umich.edu [Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)

2013-09-01

We have examined 226 intervals of nearly radial interplanetary magnetic field orientations at 1 AU lasting in excess of 6 hr. They are found within rarefaction regions as are the previously reported high-latitude observations. We show that these rarefactions typically do not involve high-speed wind such as that seen by Ulysses at high latitudes during solar minimum. We have examined both the wind speeds and the thermal ion composition before, during and after the rarefaction in an effort to establish the source of the flow that leads to the formation of the rarefaction. We find that the bulk of the measurements, both fast- and slow-wind intervals, possess both wind speeds and thermal ion compositions that suggest they come from typical low-latitude sources that are nominally considered slow-wind sources. In other words, we find relatively little evidence of polar coronal hole sources even when we examine the faster wind ahead of the rarefaction regions. While this is in contrast to high-latitude observations, we argue that this is to be expected of low-latitude observations where polar coronal hole sources are less prevalent. As with the previous high-latitude observations, we contend that the best explanation for these periods of radial magnetic field is interchange reconnection between two sources of different wind speed.

He II lambda-4686 in Eta Carinae: Collapse of the Wind-Wind Collision Region During Periastron Passage

Science.gov (United States)

Teodoro, M.; Damineli, A.; Arias, J. I.; DeAraujo, F. X.; Barba, R. H.; Corcoran, M. F.; Fernandes, M. Borges; Fernandez-Lajus, E.; Fraga, L.; Gamen, R. C.;

An evaluation of the WindEye wind lidar

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dellwik, Ebba; Sjöholm, Mikael; Mann, Jakob

Prevision of the wind field by remote sensing wind lidars has the potential to improve the performance of wind turbines. The functionality of a WindEye lidar developed by Windar Photonics A/S (Denmark) for the wind energy market was tested in a two months long field experiment. The WindEye sensor...... with a high accuracy during the whole campaign....

Practical strategies of wind energy utilization for uninhabited aerial vehicles in loiter flights

Science.gov (United States)

Singhania, Hong Yang

Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is becoming increasingly attractive in missions where human presence is undesirable or impossible. Agile maneuvers and long endurance are among the most desired advantages of UAVs over aircraft that have human pilots onboard. Past studies suggest that the performance of UAVs may be considerably improved by utilizing natural resources, especially wind energy, during flights. The key challenge of exploiting wind energy in practical UAV operations lies in the availability of reliable and timely wind field information in the operational region. This thesis presents a practical onboard strategy that attempts to over-come this challenge, to enable UAVs in utilizing wind energy effectively during flights, and therefore to enhance performance. We propose and explore a strategy that combines wind measurement and optimal trajectory planning onboard UAVs. During a cycle of a loiter flight, a UAV can take measurements of wind velocity components over the flight region, use these measurements to estimate the local wind field through a model-based approach, and then compute a flight trajectory for the next flight cycle with the objective of optimizing fuel. As the UAV follows the planned trajectory, it continues to measure the wind components and repeats the process of updating the wind model with new estimations and planning optimal trajectories for the next flight cycle. Besides presenting an onboard trajectory planning strategy of wind energy exploration, estimation, and utilization, this research also develops a semi-analytical linearized solution to the formulated nonlinear optimal control problem. Simulations and numerical results indicate that the fuel savings of trajectories generated using the proposed scheme depend on wind speed, wind estimation errors, rates of change in wind speed, and the wind model structures. For a given wind field, the magnitude of potential fuel savings is also contingent upon UAVs' performance capabilities.

Soil erosion rates caused by wind and saltating sand stresses in a wind tunnel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ligotke, M.W.

1993-02-01

Wind erosion tests were performed in a wind tunnel in support of the development of long-term protective barriers to cap stabilized waste sites at the Hanford Site. Controlled wind and saltating sand erosive stresses were applied to physical models of barrier surface layers to simulate worst-case eolian erosive stresses. The goal of these tests was to provide information useful to the design and evaluation of the surface layer composition of an arid-region waste site barrier concept that incorporates a deep fine-soil reservoir. A surface layer composition is needed that will form an armor resistant to eolian erosion during periods of extreme dry climatic conditions, especially when such conditions result in the elimination or reduction of vegetation by water deprivation or wildfire. Because of the life span required of Hanford waste barriers, it is important that additional work follow these wind tunnel studies. A modeling effort is planned to aid the interpretation of test results with respect to the suitability of pea gravel to protect the finite-soil reservoir during long periods of climatic stress. It is additionally recommended that wind tunnel tests be continued and field data be obtained at prototype or actual barrier sites. Results wig contribute to barrier design efforts and provide confidence in the design of long-term waste site caps for and regions

On the signatures of magnetic islands and multiple X-lines in the solar wind as observed by ARTEMIS and WIND

Science.gov (United States)

Eriksson, S.; Newman, D. L.; Lapenta, G.; Angelopoulos, V.

2014-06-01

We report the first observation consistent with a magnetic reconnection generated magnetic island at a solar wind current sheet that was observed on 10 June 2012 by the two ARTEMIS satellites and the upstream WIND satellite. The evidence consists of a core magnetic field within the island which is formed by enhanced Hall magnetic fields across a solar wind reconnection exhaust. The core field at ARTEMIS displays a local dip coincident with a peak plasma density enhancement and a locally slower exhaust speed which differentiates it from a regular solar wind exhaust crossing. Further indirect evidence of magnetic island formation is presented in the form of a tripolar Hall magnetic field, which is supported by an observed electron velocity shear, and plasma density depletion regions which are in general agreement with multiple reconnection X-line signatures at the same current sheet on the basis of predicted signatures of magnetic islands as generated by a kinetic reconnection simulation for solar wind-like conditions. The combined ARTEMIS and WIND observations of tripolar Hall magnetic fields across the same exhaust and Grad-Shrafranov reconstructions of the magnetic field suggest that an elongated magnetic island was encountered which displayed a 4RE normal width and a 43RE extent along the exhaust between two neighboring X-lines.

Regional climate model simulations indicate limited climatic impacts by operational and planned European wind farms.

Science.gov (United States)

Vautard, Robert; Thais, Françoise; Tobin, Isabelle; Bréon, François-Marie; Devezeaux de Lavergne, Jean-Guy; Colette, Augustin; Yiou, Pascal; Ruti, Paolo Michele

2014-01-01

The rapid development of wind energy has raised concerns about environmental impacts. Temperature changes are found in the vicinity of wind farms and previous simulations have suggested that large-scale wind farms could alter regional climate. However, assessments of the effects of realistic wind power development scenarios at the scale of a continent are missing. Here we simulate the impacts of current and near-future wind energy production according to European Union energy and climate policies. We use a regional climate model describing the interactions between turbines and the atmosphere, and find limited impacts. A statistically significant signal is only found in winter, with changes within ±0.3 °C and within 0-5% for precipitation. It results from the combination of local wind farm effects and changes due to a weak, but robust, anticyclonic-induced circulation over Europe. However, the impacts remain much weaker than the natural climate interannual variability and changes expected from greenhouse gas emissions.

Early time interaction of lithium ions with the solar wind in the AMPTE mission

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lui, A.T.Y.; Goodrich, C.C.; Mankofsky, A.; Papadopoulos, K.

1986-01-01

The early time interaction of an artificially injected lithium cloud with the solar wind is simulated with a one-dimensional hybrid code. Simulation results indicate that the lithium cloud presents an obstacle to the solar wind flow, forming a shock-like interaction region. Several notable features are found: (1) The magnetic field is enhanced up to a factor of about 6 followed by a magnetic cavity downstream. (2) Solar wind ions are slowed down inside the lithium cloud, with substantial upstream reflection. (3) Most of the lithium ions gradually pick up the velocity of the solar wind and move downstream. (4) Intense and short-wavelength electric fields exist ahead of the interaction region. (5) Strong electron heating occurs within the lithium clouds. (6) The convection electric field in the in the solar wind is modulated in the interaction region. The simulation results are in remarkable agreement with in situ spacecraft measurements made during lithium releases in the solar wind by the AMPTE (Active magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers) Program

The wind sea and swell waves climate in the Nordic seas