wind_farm_effects_us

The development of wind energy is essential for decarbonizing energy supplies. However, the construction of wind farms changes land surface temperature (LST) and vegetation by modifying land surface properties and disturbing land-atmosphere interactions. In this study, we used MODIS satellite data to quantify the impacts of 319 wind farms on local climate and vegetation in the United States. Our results indicated insignificant impacts on LST during the daytime but significant warming of 0.10°C on annual mean nighttime LST averaged for all wind farms, and 0.36°C for those 61% wind farm samples with warming. The nighttime LST impacts exhibited seasonal variations, with stronger warming in winter and autumn up to 0.18°C but weaker effects in summer and spring. We observed a decrease in peak NDVI for 59% of wind farms due to infrastructure construction, with an average decrease of 0.0067 compared to non-wind-farm areas. The impacts of wind farms depended on wind farm size, with winter LST impacts for large and small wind farms ranging from 0.21°C to 0.14°C, and peak NDVI impacts ranging from -0.009 to -0.006. The LST impacts declined with the increasing distance from the wind farm, with detectable impacts up to 10 km. In contrast, the vegetation impacts on NVDI were only evident within the wind farm locations. Wind farms built in grassland and cropland showed larger warming effects but weaker vegetation impact compared to those built on forest land. Furthermore, spatial correlation analyses with environmental factors suggest limited geographical controls on the heterogeneous wind farm impacts and highlight the important role of local factors. Our analyses based on a large sample offer new observational evidence for the wind farm impacts with improved representativeness. This knowledge is important to fully understand the climatic and environmental implications of energy system decarbonization.风电开发对于能源供应的脱碳转型至关重要。然而，风电场的建设会通过改变地表属性、扰动陆气相互作用，进而影响地表温度（Land Surface Temperature, LST）与植被状况。本研究利用MODIS卫星数据，量化了美国境内319座风电场对局地气候与植被的影响。研究结果显示，风电场对白天地表温度无显著影响，但所有风电场的年平均夜间地表温度显著升高0.10℃；其中61%出现升温效应的风电场样本，其夜间地表温度平均升高0.36℃。夜间地表温度的影响呈现季节差异：冬季与秋季升温效应更强，最高可达0.18℃，而夏季与春季的影响相对较弱。我们观测到，59%的风电场因基础设施建设出现峰值归一化差分植被指数（Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, NDVI）下降，相较于非风电场区域，平均降幅达0.0067。风电场的影响程度与风电场规模相关：大、小型风电场的冬季地表温度影响幅度介于0.14℃至0.21℃之间，峰值NDVI影响幅度介于-0.009至-0.006之间。地表温度的影响随与风电场距离的增加而减弱，可检测到影响的最大距离为10公里。与之相反，植被对NDVI的影响仅在风电场场址范围内显著。相较于建于林地的风电场，建于草地与农田的风电场升温效应更强，但植被影响相对较弱。此外，结合环境因子的空间相关性分析表明，地理因素对风电场影响的异质性调控作用有限，同时凸显了局地因子的重要作用。本研究基于大样本开展的分析，为风电场影响提供了代表性更强的新观测证据，这一研究成果对于全面理解能源系统脱碳带来的气候与环境效应具有重要意义。