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

Abstract

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