Collaborative Research: AGS-FIRP Track 2: Lake-Effect Electrification (LEE) and the Impacts of Wind Turbines on Electrification East of Lake Ontario

The Lake-Effect Electrification (LEE) Project will occur between September and March 2022-23 focused on Lake Ontario and the downwind (east of the lake) region of upstate New York. The frequent lake-effect snowstorms in this area produce several thundersnow events each year, and this project will make the first ever measurements of the electrical structure of lake-effect snow clouds and infer how lightning within them is related to precipitation processes in the clouds.

During another recent NSF-funded project, the Ontario Winter Lake-effect Systems (OWLeS) field campaign during the 2013-14 winter season, all lake-effect lightning occurred inland and many flashes were associated with the Maple Ridge Wind Farm, composed of approximately 200 turbines over 100 m tall. Lightning is a significant cause of wind turbine damage (e.g., to the blades), increasing wind energy generation costs.

The study region is therefore an ideal natural laboratory within which basic understanding of the electrical structure of clouds can be advanced while also improving forecasts of such events and understanding their impacts on energy infrastructure. This grant will involve many undergraduate and graduate students in the collection and analysis of data, developing measurement, instrumentation and data analysis skills while inspiring their further education and interest in research careers.

The Lake-Effect Electrification (LEE) Project is focused over and east (the typical downwind/lee side) of Lake Ontario during the cool season. Project LEE aims to document, for the first time, the total lightning and electrical charge structures of lake-effect storms and the associated storm environment using a lightning mapping array (LMA), a dual-polarization X-band radar, and balloon soundings that will measure vertical profiles of temperature, humidity, wind, electric field, and hydrometeor types.

Previous work has shown that the Great Lakes, especially Lake Ontario, initiate lightning in a mix of precipitation types during lake-effect storms. Most of the Lake Ontario lightning occurs during single, long-axis precipitation bands. Several questions still remain, such as explaining the preponderance of positive polarity lightning in some lake-effect and similar sea-effect storms (e.g., Japan), and why there has been a climatological shift in maximum lake-effect lightning occurrence from over Lake Ontario to farther inland.

This is likely due to the recent wind farm construction in this area, but there are still many unknowns on how these turbines produce lightning. Project LEE also affords the opportunity to improve observations of convective-to-stratiform electrical development due to the shallowness of lake-effect storms and the proximity of these processes to the ground.

Finally, lake-effect storm conditions represent minimal thresholds for lightning initiation as many of these storms do not produce lightning.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.