A Tall Tower wind investigation of Northwest Missouri

With energy needs on the rise and our current energy consumption methods polluting the atmosphere, it is the right time to look at alternative forms of energy production. Six Tall Tower wind observation sites were studied in Northwestern Missouri with a long term goal of determining if Missouri is a good resource for wind energy development. The data set collected through the research period is not lengthy enough to determine if Missouri can sustain wind energy resources, but more data is to be collected to determine this in the future. What can be determined through this data is a validation of the observational data we are collecting along with some interesting effects.;A verification of existing wind maps for the State of Missouri has been performed to assist in the positioning of wind farms. Validation of current wind maps using observational data is of key importance because the observational data is actually coming from the heights at which wind turbines will operate. It has been found that the current wind maps match the observed tower data in a general fashion. Diurnal variations in the wind fields were also studied. Wind speeds at the observed heights were found to be stronger during the nighttime hours and weaker during the daytime, as is expected. Other than this basic finding, seasonal changes in wind speed were observed to discover interesting effects within the tower data. Another aspect to be considered involves pairing tower data with wind profiler data to determine if profiler data can be used as a proxy for lower level winds. Plots of profiler winds versus tower winds were analyzed to determine a threshold for locating low-level jets (LLJ).;Even with only 8 months of data, the dataset is showing promising results for the development of wind energy resources in Northwestern Missouri. This was shown through the average wind speeds found in the diurnal variation plots. In extrapolating the upper-level winds, 500 m, downward to 100 m we found that the correlation produced was not impressive and that it would be best to continue with the standard of using surface winds to estimate upper-level winds. The LLJ was found to occur regularly and frequently. Times were located at which all the towers corresponded well, indicating the presence of a LLJ. Future research will further test if this method is actually detecting the LLJ by finding times when the LLJ is known to be present and comparing those with the times found through our detection method.