An Oklahoma wind farm is creating an invisible river of wind that reaches much higher than scientists once thought

A wind farm is usually thought of as a place where moving air is turned into electricity. Yet the flow does not simply continue on its way once it has passed through the turbines. It changes, rises and mixes with layers of the atmosphere above, leaving behind an invisible trail that can stretch far beyond the turbines themselves. That behaviour has now been mapped in unusual detail at an operating wind farm in Oklahoma. By comparing conditions before the wind reached the turbines and after it passed through them, scientists observed a broad upward transfer of momentum extending through much of the atmospheric boundary layer. According to the study published in the European Academy of Wind Energy, titled “Observations of wind farm wake recovery at an operating wind farm”, rather than remaining confined to the height of the turbine blades, the disturbance spread vertically, creating what could be described as a "river of wind" flowing upwards through the atmosphere. These effects varied with weather conditions and sometimes reached far higher than earlier models had suggested.How scientists studied wind farm wakes at Oklahoma's King Plains wind farmThe research centred on the King Pl...