Radar Observation of Snowfall from a Natural-Draft Cooling Tower Plume

Abstract

One of the potential atmospheric effects of energy dissipation at large power parks is the mesoscale modification of the precipitation field. Meteorological conditions favorable for such an influence mainly correspond to naturally precipitating atmospheres and make the identification of the anthropogenic components difficult. In this paper, millimetric Doppler radar data are used in order to analyze the three-dimensional structure of snowfalls associated, in a perturbed environment, with a natural-draft cooling tower park. The plumes observed spread out in the atmospheric boundary layer with spread angles of 15°?30° over a distance of more than 20 km. Their main characteristics compare favorably with Koenig's numerical simulation results.