High Frequency Temperature Fluctuations in a Power-Plant Thermal Plume

摘要

High-frequency temperature variations were measured at seven depths, from the water surface to three meters, at a point 130 meters from the cooling-water outfall of a power plant on Lake Michigan. The data are analyzed using spectra, correlation functions, and probability distributions. The sharp thermal fronts observed in the data are related to the surface thermal fronts seen using airborne infrared scanning, and to laboratory studies of instabilities in mixing layers between uniformly flowing and quiescent fluids.