Wind turbines operate in the surface layer of the atmospheric boundary layer, where they are subjected to strong wind shear and relatively high turbulence levels. These incoming boundary layer flow characteristics are expected to affect the structure of wind turbine wakes. The near-wake region is characterized by a complex coupled vortex system (including helicoidal tip vortices), unsteadiness and strong turbulence heterogeneity. Limited information about the spatial distribution of turbulence in the near wake, the vortex behavior and their influence on the downwind development of the far wake hinders our capability to predict wind turbine power production and fatigue loads in wind farms. This calls for a better understanding of the spatial distribution of the 3D flow and coherent turbulence structures in the near wake. Systematic wind-tunnel experiments were designed and carried out to characterize the structure of the near-wake flow downwind of a model wind turbine placed in a neutral boundary layer flow. A horizontal-axis, three-blade wind turbine model, with a rotor diameter of 13 cm and the hub height at 10.5 cm, occupied the lowest one-third of the boundary layer. High-resolution particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to measure velocities in multiple vertical streamwise planes (x-z) and vertical span-wise planes (y-z). In particular, we identified localized regions of strong vorticity and swirling strength, which are the signature of helicoidal tip vortices. These vortices are most pronounced at the top-tip level and persist up to a distance of two to three rotor diameters downwind. The measurements also reveal strong flow rotation and a highly non-axisymmetric distribution of the mean flow and turbulence structure in the near wake. The results provide new insight into the physical mechanisms that govern the development of the near wake of a wind turbine immersed in a neutral boundary layer. They also serve as important data for the development and validation of numerical models.

a b s t r a c tChanges in water temperatures resulting from climate warming can alter the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems. Lake-specific physical characteristics may play a role in mediating individual lake responses to climate. Past mechanistic studies of lake-climate interactions have simulated generic lake classes at large spatial scales or performed detailed analyses of small numbers of real lakes. Understanding the diversity of lake responses to climate change across landscapes requires a hybrid approach that couples site-specific lake characteristics with broad-scale environmental drivers. This study provides a substantial advancement in lake ecosystem modeling by combining open-source tools with freely available continental-scale data to mechanistically model daily temperatures for 2368 Wisconsin lakes over three decades . The model accurately predicted observed surface layer temperatures (RMSE: 1.74 • C) and the presence/absence of stratification (81.1% agreement). Among-lake coherence was strong for surface temperatures and weak for the timing of stratification, suggesting individual lake characteristics mediate some -but not all -ecologically relevant lake responses to climate.Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

Thermal stability changes the properties of the turbulent atmospheric boundary layer, and in turn affects the behaviour of wind-turbine wakes. To better understand the effects of thermal stability on the wind-turbine wake structure, wind-tunnel experiments were carried out with a simulated convective boundary layer (CBL) and a neutral boundary layer. The CBL was generated by cooling the airflow to 12-15 • C and heating up the test section floor to 73-75 • C. The freestream wind speed was set at about 2.5 m s −1 , resulting in a bulk Richardson number of −0.13. The wake of a horizontal-axis 3-blade wind-turbine model, whose height was within the lowest one third of the boundary layer, was studied using stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (S-PIV) and triple-wire (x-wire/cold-wire) anemometry. Data acquired with the SPIV were analyzed to characterize the highly three-dimensional turbulent flow in the near wake (0.2-3.2 rotor diameters) as well as to visualize the shedding of tip vortices. Profiles of the mean flow, turbulence intensity, and turbulent momentum and heat fluxes were measured with the triple-wire anemometer at downwind locations from 2-20 rotor diameters in the centre plane of the wake. In comparison with the wake of the same wind turbine in a neutral boundary layer, a smaller velocity deficit (about 15 % at the wake centre) is observed in the CBL, where an enhanced radial momentum transport leads to a more rapid momentum recovery, particularly in the lower part of the wake. The velocity deficit at the wake centre decays following a power law regardless of the thermal stability. While the peak turbulence intensity (and the maximum added turbulence) occurs at the top-tip height at a downwind distance of about three rotor diameters in both cases, the magnitude is about 20 % higher

[1] A model is developed to quantify the wind sheltering of a lake by a tree canopy or a bluff. The experiment-based model predicts the wind-sheltering coefficient a priori, without calibration, and is useful for one-dimensional (1-D) lake hydrodynamic and water quality modeling. The model is derived from velocity measurements in a boundary layer wind tunnel, by investigating mean velocity profiles and surface shear stress development downwind of two canopies and a bluff. The wind tunnel experiments are validated with field measurements over an ice-covered lake. Both wind tunnel and field experiments show that reduced surface shear stress extends approximately 50 canopy heights downwind from the transition. The reduction in total shear force on the water surface is parameterized by a wind-sheltering coefficient that is related to the reduction of wind-affected lake area. While all measurements are made on solid surfaces, the wind-sheltering coefficient is shown to be applicable to the lake surface. Although several canopy characteristics, such as its height, aerodynamic roughness, and its porosity affect the transition of velocity profiles and surface shear stress onto a lake, a relationship based on canopy height alone provides a sufficiently realistic estimate of the wind-sheltering coefficient. The results compare well with wind-sheltering coefficients estimated by calibration of lake water temperature profile simulations for eight lakes.

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This study presents the setup, methodology and results from a measurement campaign dedicated to the characterization of full-scale wind turbine wakes under different inflow conditions. The measurements have been obtained from two pulsed scanning Doppler lidars mounted on the nacelle of a 2.5 MW wind turbine. The first lidar is upstream oriented and dedicated to the characterization of the inflow with a variety of scanning patterns, while the second one is downstream oriented and performs horizontal planar scans of the wake. The calculated velocity deficit profiles exhibit self-similarity in the far wake region and they can be fitted accurately to Gaussian functions. This allows for the study of the growth rate of the wake width and the recovery of the wind speed, as well as the extent of the near-wake region. The results show that a higher incoming turbulence intensity enhances the entrainment and flow mixing in the wake region, resulting in a shorter near-wake length, a faster growth rate of the wake width and a faster recovery of the velocity deficit. The relationships obtained are compared to analytical models for wind turbine wakes and allow to correct the parameters prescribed until now, which were obtained from wind-tunnel measurements and large-eddy simulations (LES), with new, more accurate values directly derived from full-scale experiments.

[1] Spatial and temporal heterogeneity of methane flux from boreal wetlands makes prediction and up-scaling challenging, both within and among wetland systems. Drivers of methane production and emissions are also highly variable, making empirical model development difficult and leading to uncertainty in methane emissions estimates from wetlands. Previous studies have examined this problem using point-scale (static chamber method) and ecosystem-scale (flux tower methods) measurements, but few studies have investigated whether different processes are observed at these scales. We analyzed methane emissions from a boreal fen, measured by both techniques, using data from the Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study. We sought to identify driving processes associated with methane emissions at two scales and explain diurnal patterns in emissions measured by the tower. The mean methane emission rates from flux chambers were greater than the daytime, daily mean rates measured by the tower, but the nighttime, daily mean emissions from the tower were often an order of magnitude greater than emissions recorded during the daytime. Thus, daytime measurements from either the tower or chambers would lead to a biased estimate of total methane emissions from the wetland. We found that the timing of nighttime emission events was coincident with the cooling and convective mixing within hollows, which occurred regularly during the growing season. We propose that diurnal thermal stratification in shallow pools traps methane by limiting turbulent transport. This methane stored during daytime heating is later released during evening cooling due to convective turbulent mixing.Citation: Godwin, C. M., P. J. McNamara, and C. D. Markfort (2013), Evening methane emission pulses from a boreal wetland correspond to convective mixing in hollows,

Large-scale wind farms, covering a significant portion of the land and ocean surface, may affect the transport of momentum, heat, mass and moisture between the atmosphere and the land locally and globally. To understand the wind-farm-atmosphere interaction, we conducted wind-tunnel experiments to study the surface scalar (heat) flux using model wind farms, consisting of more than ten rows of wind turbines-having typical streamwise and spanwise spacings of five and four rotor diameters-in a neutral boundary layer with a heated surface. The spatial distribution of the surface heat flux was mapped with an array of surface heat flux sensors within the quasi-developed regime of the wind-farm flow. Although the overall surface heat flux change produced by the wind farms was found to be small, with a net reduction of 4% for a staggered wind farm and nearly zero change for an aligned wind farm, the highly heterogeneous spatial distribution of the surface heat flux, dependent on the wind-farm layout, was significant. The difference between the minimum and maximum surface heat fluxes could be up to 12% and 7% in aligned and staggered wind farms, respectively. This finding is important for planning intensive agriculture practice and optimizing farm land use strategy regarding wind energy project development. The well-controlled wind-tunnel experiments presented in this study also provide a first comprehensive dataset on turbulent flow and scalar transport in wind farms, which can be further used to develop and validate new parameterizations of surface scalar fluxes in numerical models.