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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Wind farm structural response and wake dynamics for an evolving stable boundary layer: computational and experimental comparisons

Abstract. The wind turbine design process requires performing thousands of simulations for a wide range of inflow and control conditions, which necessitates computationally efficient yet time-accurate models, especially when considering wind farm settings. To this end, FAST.Farm is a dynamic-wake-meandering-based mid-fidelity engineering tool developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory targeted at accurately and efficiently predicting wind turbine power production and structural loading in wind farm settings, including wake interactions between turbines. This work is an extension of a study that addressed constructing a diurnal cycle evolution based on experimental data (Quon, 2024). Here, this inflow is used to validate the turbine structural and wake-meandering response between experimental data, FAST.Farm simulation results, and high-fidelity large-eddy simulation results from the coupled Simulator fOr Wind Farm Applications (SOWFA)–OpenFAST tool. The validation occurs within the nocturnal stable boundary layer when corresponding meteorological and turbine data are available. To this end, we compared the load results from FAST.Farm and SOWFA–OpenFAST to multi-turbine measurements from a subset of a full-scale wind farm. Computational predictions of blade-root and tower-base bending loads are compared to 10 min statistics of strain gauge measurements during 3.5 h of the evolving stable boundary layer, generally with good agreement. This time period coincided with an active wake-steering campaign of an upstream turbine, resulting in time-varying yaw positions of all turbines. Wake meandering was also compared between the computational solutions, generally with excellent agreement. Simulations were based on a high-fidelity precursor constructed from inflow measurements and using state-of-the-art mesoscale-to-microscale coupling.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Simulations of a hypersonic turbulent boundary layer over wavy surfaces

Here, we conduct large-eddy simulations of a Mach 5.84 cold wall turbulent boundary layer over one-dimensional wavy walls with varying amplitudes and wavelengths. Across all wall topologies, a series of alternating shock and expansion waves is shown to influence the entire boundary layer, and generate repeating wave patterns in the turbulent stresses, dispersive stresses, and turbulent kinetic energy budget. The series of alternating shocks and expansions imposes repeating adverse and favourable pressure gradients across the wavy wall, and at sufficient wall amplitude, triggers flow separation in the trough of the wave. Flow separation is demonstrated to influence the behaviour of wall pressure fluctuations over the wavy wall. In attached flows, the prominent frequencies are consistent with integral-scale boundary layer turbulence, whereas in separated flows, a two-decade frequency range is present, akin to two-dimensional shock–boundary layer interactions. Counter-rotating streamwise-oriented structures are observed on the windward side of the wave, which diminish over the wave crest. A conditional analysis demonstrates that these structures are present in the upstream boundary layer, and are amplified with increasing wall amplitude. An examination of the Görtler number and probability density function (PDF) of the fluctuating lateral wall shear stress demonstrates the strong correlation between a large Görtler number and growth of the PDF tail density, suggesting that the amplification of the counter-rotating streamwise-oriented structures are linked to centrifugal instabilities in regions of streamline concavity.

boundary layers↗
DOE OSTI2023

Daytime convective development over land: the role of surface forcing

Water availability at the Earth surface determines the portioning of the surface heat flux into its sensible and latent components, that is, the surface heat flux Bowen ratio. The two components affect differently the surface buoyancy flux and thus the development and growth of the convective boundary layer. As a result, the Bowen ratio has a strong impact on the daytime dry and moist convection development over land. Here, we use two canonical modeling test cases, one for the shallow convection and one for the shallow-to-deep convection transition, to document the impact of the surface Bowen ratio on daytime convection development. A simple approach is used where results from simulations featuring the original setup are contrasted with simulations where surface sensible heat flux takes on values of the latent heat flux and vice versa. Such a change illustrates the key impact of the surface water availability without changing the total surface heat flux. Because of the larger surface buoyancy flux, simulations with the reversed surface heat fluxes feature faster deepening of the convective boundary layer and wider clouds once moist convection develops. Mean cloud base width of cumulus clouds increases with the boundary layer depth. For shallow-to-deep convection transition, comparison of simulations with the observed large-scale flow that feature substantial lower-tropospheric shear with simulations with no mean horizontal flow suggests that the organization of convective circulations within the boundary layer strongly affects initial size and organization of shallow convection, as well as the subsequent width increase once convection deepens and eventually transitions to deep precipitating convection. A simple explanation is provided of why deeper well-mixed convective subcloud layer results in wider clouds. The key is the larger width of boundary layer coherent updraft structures when the mixed layer is deeper.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

The FastEddy® Resident-GPU Accelerated Large-Eddy Simulation Framework: Moist Dynamics Extension, Validation and Sensitivities of Modeling Non-Precipitating Shallow Cumulus Clouds

Herein we describe the moist dynamics formulation implemented within the graphics processing unit-resident large-eddy simulation FastEddy® model, which includes a simple saturation adjustment scheme for condensation and evaporation processes. Two LES model intercomparison exercises for non-precipitating shallow cumulus clouds are simulated in order to validate this model extension, including a static forcing and a time-dependent forcing case. Overall, we find our dynamical, thermodynamical and microphysical quantities, along with turbulence variability and fluxes, to be commensurate with the corresponding model intercomparison results. In addition, sensitivities to specific model settings are investigated. Among these settings, it is shown that boundary layer and cloud layer structure and characteristics are sensitive to use of higher-order advection schemes impacting the vertical distribution of cloud content and associated turbulence statistics. Increasing the timescale of the saturation scheme leads to enhanced liquid water presence and decreases vertical velocity variance within the cloud deck. In some cases, these sensitivities agree with the model-to-model variability reported in the intercomparison exercises, highlighting the important role of specific model implementation choices in the context of shallow cumulus convection simulations. These analyses and findings also provide the basis for future extensions and applications of FastEddy® for modeling moist convection and precipitation scenarios.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

CROCUS Sodar Measurements of Lower Atmospheric Wind Profiles at Argonne Testbed for Multiscale Observational Science (ATMOS) Site

The Scintec MFAS Sodar (Multiple-Frequency Acoustic Sounder) is an autonomous, ground-based acoustic remote sensing system designed to measure vertical profiles of horizontal wind speed, wind direction, and vertical velocity in the lower atmosphere. The instrument transmits sequences of acoustic pulses and detects the Doppler-shifted sound waves backscattered by small-scale temperature and velocity fluctuations caused by atmospheric turbulence. From these Doppler shifts, the system derives three-dimensional wind vectors by combining radial velocities from multiple beam orientations.The MFAS Sodar operates with a first usable range gate beginning at approximately 30 m above ground level and a configurable vertical resolution of 10 m. Under favorable acoustic conditions, the system provides wind profiles extending up to 600 m above ground level. Measurements are processed into 15-minute averaged profiles containing wind speed, direction, vertical velocity, and diagnostic quantities such as signal-to-noise ratio and echo strength.This dataset was collected at the Argonne Testbed for Multiscale Observational Science (ATMOS) facility in Lemont, Illinois, as part of DOE's CROCUS Urban Integrated Field Laboratory (UIFL) initiative. The purpose of these observations is to characterize the vertical wind structure and boundary-layer evolution across the urban–suburban gradient of the greater Chicago region. In particular, these data are intended to improve understanding of how local meteorology, such as lake-breeze penetration, nocturnal jets, and daytime mixing, varies between the densely built urban core and the suburban periphery. The MFAS observations provide critical context for evaluating high-resolution model simulations and for integrating with complementary lidar, radar, and in-situ meteorological measurements within the broader CROCUS UIFL network.All data are archived in NetCDF (Network Common Data Form) format and include wind and diagnostic parameters. The files can be accessed and analyzed using standard software that supports NetCDF, such as Python (e.g., xarray, netCDF4), MATLAB, R (e.g., ncdf4, raster), or Panoply (NASA’s NetCDF visualization application).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Internal energy balance and aerodynamic heating predictions for hypersonic turbulent boundary layers

The elemental equation governing heat transfer in aerodynamic flows is the internal energy equation. For a boundary layer flow, a double integration of the Reynolds-averaged form of this equation provides an expression of the wall heat flux in terms of the integrated effects, over the boundary layer, of various physical processes: turbulent dissipation, mean dissipation, turbulent heat flux, etc. Recently available direct numerical simulation data for a Mach 11 cold-wall turbulent boundary layer allows a comparison of the exact contributions of these terms in the energy equation to the wall heat flux with their counterparts modeled in the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) framework. Various approximations involved in RANS, both closure models as well as approximations involved in adapting incompressible RANS models to a compressible form, are assessed through examination of the internal energy balance. There are a number of potentially problematic assumptions and terms identified through this analysis. Here, the effect of compressibility corrections of the dilatational dissipation type is explored, as is the role of the modeled turbulent dissipation, in the context of wall heat flux predictions. The results indicate several potential avenues for RANS model improvement for hypersonic cold-wall boundary-layer flows.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Experimental Measurements of Soot and Soot Precursors of Sustainable Aviation Fuels

Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs) are promising for decarbonizing the challenging-to-electrify aerospace sector and reducing yearly greenhouse gas emissions by thousands of tons. Developing predictive detailed chemical kinetic models for SAF (and traditional) fuel mixtures necessitates a robust experimental database to elucidate the intricate pyrolysis and oxidation chemistry of SAF fuel blend components. Two critical components of SAF surrogate mixtures are iso-dodecane isomers and trans-decalin. This report characterizes the structure of three slightly sooting, laminar, non-premixed, nitrogen-diluted Planar Mixing Layer Flames (PMLFs) fueled by either pure ethylene, ethylene doped with 1500ppm of either 2,2,4,6,6-pentamethyl-heptane or trans-decalin. The flames have the same stoichiometric mixture fraction and total mole fraction of fuels in the fuel stream (X F,F = X C2H4,F + X Dopant,F = 0.26), resulting in approximately the same maximum temperature (T max ≈ 1800 K) to highlight the effect of doping on soot and its gaseous precursors. The PMLF is unconfined and established between adjacent planar jets of the fuel and oxidizer streams surrounded by annular shielding nitrogen. The flow is stabilized by exhausting the hot buoyant flame products through a slot in a downstream plate onto which the cold flow impinges. Importantly, any horizontal cross-section of the PMLF has a self-similar thermochemical structure of a reactive boundary layer that grows at increasing Height Above the Burner (HAB). Therefore, the horizontal cross-sections of a PMLF can be modeled as a One-Dimensional Counterflow Flame (1D-CF) with very low strain rates which are unachievable in traditional CFs and yield a structure that is several millimeters thick. In brief, the PMLF is ideal for performing spatially resolved measurements with minimal effects of the sampling-induced perturbations, to develop and validate detailed chemical kinetic models on time scales of a few tens of milliseconds that are relevant in aviation applications. The horizontal profiles of C0-C18 gaseous species at HAB = 50 mm and soot volume fraction at 25 and 50 mm are measured using capillary sampling followed by GC-MS analyses and Laser Induced Emission Spectroscopy (LIES), respectively. Additionally, the Elastic Laser Light Scattering (E-LLS) coefficient is measured at HAB = 50 mm and 25 mm to determine the strain rates of the 1D-CFs equivalent to the characterized PMLF horizontal cross sections and the profile of the E-LLS equivalent diameter of soot. The comparison of the results in the base PMLF fueled only by ethylene with those in either doped PMLF in which 1500 ppm of ethylene are replaced with 2,2,4,6,6-pentamethyl-heptane or trans-decalin, reveals that the doping increases the mole fraction of several Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) at both HABs by a factor of approximately 2.5, and the soot volume fraction at both HABs by factors of ~1.5 for 2,2,4,6,6-pentamethyl-heptane and ~1.25 for trans-decalin doping, respectively. Conversely, doping causes a near doubling of the soot equivalent diameter only at HAB = 50 mm, without significant effects at 25 mm. The experimental results partially validate the tested state-of-the-art detailed chemical kinetic model and also point toward the further improvement of its predictive capabilities.

10 SYNTHETIC FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Investigations of correlation and coherence in turbulence from a large-eddy simulation

Abstract. Microscale flow descriptions are often given in terms of mean quantities, turbulent kinetic energy, and/or stresses. Those metrics, while valuable, give limited information about turbulent eddies and coherent turbulent structures. This work investigates the structure of an atmospheric boundary layer using coherence and correlation in space and time with a range of separation distances. We calculate spatial correlations over entire planes of velocity fluctuations, from which we can evaluate the correlation along different directions at different spacings. Similarly, coherence of the three velocity components over separations in the three directions is also investigated. We apply these analyses to a mesoscale–microscale coupled scenario with time-varying conditions and examine nuances in spatial correlations that are often overlooked. Through these analyses and results, this work highlights important differences observed in terms of coherence when comparing large-eddy simulation data to simpler models and suggests ways to improve these simpler models. We note that such differences are important for disciplines like wind energy structural dynamic analysis, in which blade loading and fatigue depend strongly on the structure of the turbulence. We emphasize the additional wealth of data that can be provided by typical atmospheric boundary layer large-eddy simulation when correlation and coherence analysis is included, and we also state the limitations of large-eddy simulation data, which inherently truncate the smaller scales of turbulence.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Boundary Layer Controls on the Shallow-to-Deep Cumulus Transition (Final Technical Report)

This project advanced our understanding of the processes governing cumulus cloud formation and provides an improved observational basis for validating earth system models. To be specific, the project used laser- and radar-remote sensors to examine the physical properties of updrafts that rise from earth’s surface and initiate clouds deeper in the atmosphere. These updrafts comprise “thermals” and “plumes” and occur at small spatial and temporal scales (e.g., 10s of minutes, 100s of meters). These small scales preclude explicit representation in most earth system and climate models, and thus necessitate “sub-grid-scale” parameterization of updraft processes. The innovation of this project was to directly measure the size, shape, strength and water vapor content of these updrafts with Doppler and Raman lidars, respectively, and to link these updraft properties to cloud processes using vertically pointed weather radars. The resulting data sets comprise 100s of thousands of updrafts and thousands of clouds, which far exceeds previous efforts, and thereby provides a robust statistical and physical representation of these processes. From these large datasets the project produced a sequence of scientific analyses that: (1) Elucidate how variations in the turbulent structure of the convective boundary layer control shallow cumulus convection, (2) Quantify the upward transport of water vapor to cloud base via thermals and plumes, (3) Validate large-eddy simulations of updrafts and shallow convective clouds, (4) Demonstrate a size-to-strength relationship between updraft width and updraft speed, and (5) Demonstrate how updrafts interact with the stability at the top of the convective boundary layer to modulate the depth and vigor of convective clouds. These results have been disseminated via several published journal articles, academic theses, and conference presentations. Collectively these results contribute to the Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program’s goal to “improve understanding of the key cloud, aerosol, precipitation, and radiation processes that affect the Earth’s radiative balance and hydrological cycle, particularly processes that limit the predictive ability of regional and global earth system models”.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Assessment of Updraft Modeling Bias Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) habitats may overlap with wind energy development in some regions of the US. Eagles, and similar soaring bird species, are therefore at risk of collision with wind turbines when flying through wind farms. Recently developed behavioral modeling approaches can predict the presence of eagles near turbines within the rotor-swept layer but require reliable prediction of atmospheric flowfield conditions. In particular, the vertical component of the wind speed dictates a soaring bird's ability to maintain or gain altitude, since they rely on updrafts to subsidize their flight. In this work, we investigate the atmospheric conditions around a wind farm in complex terrain and compare methods for atmospheric characterization. We use computational fluid dynamics (specifically, large-eddy simulations, or LES) to simulate the atmospheric boundary layer over a region encompassing multiple wind farms with high temporal and spatial resolution (seconds and 10's of meters, respectively). We compare traditional non-simulation-based methods of determining the orographic updraft potential based on wind direction, terrain slope and aspect, with the flowfields from LES that include both orographic updrafts alone and combined thermal and orographic updrafts. Preliminary analysis suggests that although the model captures the horizontal pattern of vertical updrafts, their magnitude can be improved with information about the surface heat flux, which is usually correlated with time of the day. Within our study region, we found that the low-fidelity model may over- or underestimate updraft potential by up to 400% at 80 m AGL, depending on local orographic features. This can result in an inaccurate representation of eagle presence and, consequently, risk. Another important finding is that flowfield time-averaging can hide important details about the flight environment, including how thermally generated flow structures within the atmospheric boundary layer (e.g., convective rolls and/or cells) may be important drivers of eagle flight.

atmospheric turbulence↗
DOE OSTI2023

Constraints on simulated past Arctic amplification and lapse rate feedback from observations

The Arctic has warmed more rapidly than the global mean during the past few decades. The lapse rate feedback (LRF) has been identified as being a large contributor to the Arctic amplification (AA) of climate change. This particular feedback arises from the vertically non-uniform warming of the troposphere, which in the Arctic emerges as strong near-surface and muted free-tropospheric warming. Stable stratification and meridional energy transport are two characteristic processes that are evoked as causes for this vertical warming structure. Our aim is to constrain these governing processes by making use of detailed observations in combination with the large climate model ensemble of the sixth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). We build on the result that CMIP6 models show a large spread in AA and Arctic LRF, which are positively correlated for the historical period of 1951–2014. Thus, we present process-oriented constraints by linking characteristics of the current climate to historical climate simulations. In particular, we compare a large consortium of present-day observations to co-located model data from subsets that show a weak and strong simulated AA and Arctic LRF in the past. Our analyses suggest that the vertical temperature structure of the Arctic boundary layer is more realistically depicted in climate models with weak (w) AA and Arctic LRF (CMIP6/w) in the past. In particular, CMIP6/w models show stronger inversions in the present climate for boreal autumn and winter and over sea ice, which is more consistent with the observations. These results are based on observations from the year-long Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition in the central Arctic, long-term measurements at the Utqiagvik site in Alaska, USA, and dropsonde temperature profiling from aircraft campaigns in the Fram Strait. In addition, the atmospheric energy transport from lower latitudes that can further mediate the warming structure in the free troposphere is more realistically represented by CMIP6/w models. In particular, CMIP6/w models systemically simulate a weaker Arctic atmospheric energy transport convergence in the present climate for boreal autumn and winter, which is more consistent with fifth generation reanalysis of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ERA5). We further show a positive relationship between the magnitude of the present-day transport convergence and the strength of past AA. With respect to the Arctic LRF, we find links between the changes in transport pathways that drive vertical warming structures and local differences in the LRF. This highlights the mediating influence of advection on the Arctic LRF and motivates deeper studies to explicitly link spatial patterns of Arctic feedbacks to changes in the large-scale circulation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Interactions Between Clouds and Wind-Driven Surface Heat Exchanges over Land

Earth system model experiments show that increasing horizontal resolution fundamentally alters the simulated soil-moisture-precipitation feedback. Kilometer-scale simulations often produce weaker or even negative feedback compared to coarse-resolution models. A key difference of kilometer-scale models is that they resolve mesoscale secondary circulations, including boundary layer horizontal rolls and cellular structures, in addition to cold pools and downdrafts associated with convective precipitation. However, because the relevant processes occur on yet-smaller scales, these circulations are often poorly resolved. This project demonstrated that boundary layer secondary circulations significantly affect surface heat exchanges and wind gusts, and that current model parameterizations can misrepresent these processes at kilometer-scale resolution. Using DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) observations and targeted experiments with the DOE Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM), we identified physically unrealistic wind gust and surface flux responses to secondary circulations, diagnosed a systematic overestimation of wind shear in convective cold pools, and uncovered a multivariate relationship between land surface fluxes and the scales of updrafts that form shallow cumulus clouds. These findings provide observation-based recommendations for improving parameterizations of surface fluxes and wind gusts in high-resolution Earth system models, thereby reducing uncertainty in convective storm prediction and land-atmosphere feedbacks.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

ExaWind: Predictive Wind Energy Simulations

This presentation describes the ExaWind project and the team's progress in creating a suite of performance-portable codes designed for predictive simulations of wind farms on next-generation exascale-class supercomputers. Such simulations will require the resolution of scales spanning many orders of magnitude, from blade boundary layers to wind farm flow structures. In the U.S., the first exascale systems will be GPU accelerated, and different GPU manufacturers have been chosen for the different systems. At the heart of the ExaWind software is a hybrid-solver approach based on the codes Nalu-Wind and AMR-Wind, which are computational fluid dynamics solvers for the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. Nalu-Wind is an unstructured-grid code used to resolve wind turbine geometry and blade boundary layers, whereas AMR-Wind is a structured-grid background solver for atmospheric turbulent flow and turbine wake propagation. The models are coupled with overset meshes and global linear systems are approximated through a loose-coupling algorithm. Results will include validation-quality high-fidelity simulations and strong/weak scaling results from the Summit supercomputer.

49 EE - Wind and Water Power Program - Wind (EE-4W↗
DOE OSTI2022

The Two-Energies Turbulence Scheme Coupled to the Assumed PDF Method

An update of the two-energy turbulence scheme is presented, the 2TE + APDF scheme. The original version of the two-energy scheme is able to successfully model shallow convection without the need of an additional parameterization for non-local fluxes. However, the performance of the two-energy scheme is worse in stratocumulus cases, where it tends to overestimate the erosion of the stable layers. We have identified the causes: the non-local stability parameter does not consider local stratification, the scheme lacks an internal parameter that could distinguish between a shallow convection regime and a stratocumulus regime, and it uses an inflexible turbulence length scale formulation. To alleviate this problem, we propose several modifications: an update of the stability parameter, a modified computation of the turbulence length scale, and the introduction of the entropy potential temperature to distinguish between a shallow convection and a stratocumulus regime. In addition, the two-energy scheme is coupled to a simplified assumed probability density function method in order to achieve a more universal representation of the cloudy regimes. The updated turbulence scheme is evaluated for several idealized cases and one selected real case in the ICOsahedral Nonhydrostatic (ICON) modeling framework. The results show that the updated scheme corrects the overmixing problem in the stratocumulus cases. The performance of the updated scheme is comparable to the operational setup, and can be thus used instead of the operational turbulence and shallow convection scheme in ICON. Additionally, the updated scheme improves the coupling with dynamics, which is beneficial for the modeling of coherent flow structures in the atmospheric boundary layer.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Using Satellite and ARM Observations to Evaluate Cold Air Outbreak Cloud Transitions in E3SM Global Storm‐Resolving Simulations

Abstract This study examines marine boundary layer cloud regime transition during a cold air outbreak (CAO) over the Norwegian Sea, simulated by a global storm‐resolving model (GSRM) known as the Simple Cloud‐Resolving Energy Exascale Earth System Model Atmosphere Model (SCREAM). By selecting observational references based on a combination of large‐scale conditions rather than strict time‐matched comparisons, this study finds that SCREAM qualitatively captures the CAO cloud transition, including boundary layer growth, cloud mesoscale structure, and phase partitioning. SCREAM also accurately locates the greatest ice and liquid in the mesoscale updrafts, however, underestimates supercooled liquid water in cumulus clouds. The model evaluation approach adopted by this study takes advantages of the existing computational‐expensive global simulations of GSRM and the available observations to understand model performance and can be applied to assessments of other cloud regimes in different regions. Such practice provides valuable guidance on the future effort to correct and improve biased model behaviors.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Acoustic Travel-Time Tomography for Wind Energy

New remote sensing technologies for direct observation of the atmospheric flow in the proximity of operating wind turbines are necessary for the advancement of wind turbine design, wind plant control, and the validation of high-fidelity numerical models; fundamental goals of the DOE Wind Energy Technology Office's (WETO's) A2e program. Modern remote sensing technologies for commercial and research applications rely on the backscatter of light or sound waves, which limits spatial and temporal resolution and cannot produce reliable flow estimates near solid bodies or reflective surfaces. Acoustic tomography (AT) is an innovative sensing technology based on fundamental thermodynamic properties of the atmosphere and an inverse algorithm that can reconstruct both velocity and temperature fields within a network of acoustic transducers. AT relies on the direct travel path of acoustic signals between speakers and microphones in the network and can achieve much higher resolutions than conventional backscatter technologies. For wind energy R&D applications, AT represents an extremely economical option over other remote sensing technologies, integrating mature and commonly available acoustic and signal processing hardware. This report is intended as an update on the development of the AT array on the NREL Flatirons Campus (FC) and includes a brief review of the instrumentation, the calibration of equipment, signal processing, and resulting flow field estimates. Designs for future AT systems and applications are detailed in this report, including summaries of new capabilities, engineering and theoretical challenges, and anticipated costs help to outline future directions for AT technology R\&D. The potential for application of AT to utility-scale turbines is also discussed. Investing in the development of the proposed instrument will establish AT as a transformational RS technique that represents a significant advance in measurement instrumentation, enabling new fundamental insights into the structure of the atmospheric boundary layer and supporting applications for wind energy, pollution transport, and resource characterization. AT is also an extremely economical option over other RS instruments, integrating mature and commonly available acoustic and signal processing hardware.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Probing the atmospheric boundary layer with integrated remote-sensing platforms during the American WAKE ExperimeNt (AWAKEN) campaign

The American WAKE ExperimeNt (AWAKEN) collaboration is an observational-based field campaign in northern Oklahoma intended to analyze the potential influence of onshore wind farms and their collective wakes on wind power production, turbine structural loads, and on the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). Focusing on the ABL effects, the University of Oklahoma and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory collected continuous high-resolution kinematic and thermodynamic profile measurements during 2022 and Summer 2023. The deployment strategy for these campaigns is detailed first, followed by an initial comparison of data from two sites in the AWAKEN domain: a near-farm site to examine collective wake impacts on the ABL, and a far-field site remaining outside the wind farm-waked region. Here, we summarize the datasets available and demonstrate the benefits of these observations and multiple value-added products (VAPs) for investigation of ABL features observed during AWAKEN. We also highlight examples of preliminary analyses, including ABL height detection and nocturnal low-level jet examination, which are produced using novel VAPs based on optimal estimation to retrieve deeper Doppler lidar wind profiles than previously resolved, along with their uncertainty. By including the near-farm and far-field site in these analyses, we identified a pattern of stronger lower-atmospheric mixing at the near-farm site than the far-field site, motivating deeper investigation into the relationship between wind farms and general ABL characteristics. Future analysis will delve deeper into this relationship by examining other ABL characteristics, such as atmospheric stability and convection.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

The significant impact of aerosol vertical structure on lower atmosphere stability and its critical role in aerosol–planetary boundary layer (PBL) interactions

The aerosol–planetary boundary layer (PBL) interaction was proposed as an important mechanism to stabilize the atmosphere and exacerbate surface air pollution. Despite the tremendous progress made in understanding this process, its magnitude and significance still have large uncertainties and vary largely with aerosol distribution and meteorological conditions. In this study, we focus on the role of aerosol vertical distribution in thermodynamic stability and PBL development by jointly using micropulse lidar, sun photometer, and radiosonde measurements taken in Beijing. Despite the complexity of aerosol vertical distributions, cloud-free aerosol structures can be largely classified into three types: well-mixed, decreasing with height, and inverse structures. The aerosol–PBL relationship and diurnal cycles of the PBL height and PM 2.5 associated with these different aerosol vertical structures show distinct characteristics. The vertical distribution of aerosol radiative forcing differs drastically among the three types, with strong heating in the lower, middle, and upper PBL, respectively. Such a discrepancy in the heating rate affects the atmospheric buoyancy and stability differently in the three distinct aerosol structures. Absorbing aerosols have a weaker effect of stabilizing the lower atmosphere under the decreasing structure than under the inverse structure. As a result, the aerosol–PBL interaction can be strengthened by the inverse aerosol structure and can be potentially neutralized by the decreasing structure. Moreover, aerosols can both enhance and suppress PBL stability, leading to both positive and negative feedback loops. This study attempts to improve our understanding of the aerosol–PBL interaction, showing the importance of the observational constraint of aerosol vertical distribution for simulating this interaction and consequent feedbacks.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗