The effect of wind farms on weather radar has been carefully addressed by the US National Weather Service, which operates 159 NEXRAD systems [US1, US2, US3, US4]. Specific observations of the wind farm phenomenology were conducted in [US4, US5]. Since wind farms can create Doppler clutter that contaminates data products from weather radar, guidelines on impact zones were set up in [US2, US3]. In particular, distances within 3km from the radar and distances up to 18km were designated as severe impact and significant impact zones, respectively. For future offshore wind farms, these distances may need to be updated to account for the larger size of offshore wind turbines [US3]. In Europe, the Operational Programme for the Exchange of Weather Radar Information (OPERA) group has studied and published a set of guidelines for weather radar [EU1, EU2].
The potential impact of offshore wind farms on ocean monitoring radars operating in the HF frequency range has recently received some attention. In [EU3], wind farm clutter from the Rhyl-Flats offshore farm in UK's Liverpool Bay was reported on the WERA (Wave Radar) system, which operates at 13MHz. Of particular interest is the availability of measured data both before and after the operation of the farm. In [US6], a simulation study was conducted on the CODAR (Coastal Ocean Dynamics Applications Radar) system by CODAR Ocean Sensors Ltd. to assess potential interference. [EU4] is the conference proceedings from the 60th Topical Expert meeting with participation from 20 countries in Europe, US and Asia. It contains recent R&D activities to address wind farm interference on radar and radio links.
US.1
"Impacts of Wind Farms on WSR-88D Operations"
D. W. Burgess, T. Crum, and R. J. Vogt
24th Int. Conf. on Interactive Information Processing Systems (IIPS) for Meteorology,
Oceanography, and Hydrology, Amer. Meteor. Soc., Paper 6B.3, New Orleans, LA, 2008.
US.2
"A Way Forward: Wind Farm Weather Radar Coexistence"
J. B. Sandifer, T. Crum, E. Ciardi, and R. Guenther
WINDPOWER 2009, Chicago, IL, May 2009.
US.3
"New Criteria for Evaluating Wind Turbine Impacts on NEXRAD Weather Radars"
R. J. Vogt, T. D. Crum, W. Greenwood, E. J. Ciardi, and R. G. Guenther
NEXRAD Radar Operations Center, Norman, Oklahoma
Windpower 2011
US.4
"Detailed Observations of Wind Turbine Clutter with Scanning Weather Radars"
B. M. Isom, R. D. Palmer, G. S. Secrest, R. D. Rhoton, D. Saxion, T. L. Allmon, J. Reed, T.
Crum, and R. Vogt
Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, vol. 26, pp. 894-910
May 2009.
US.5
"Signal Analysis and Modeling of Wind Turbine Clutter in Weather"
K. V. Mishra and V. Chandrasekar
IGARSS, pp. 3561-3564
2010
US.6
"Estimation of Wind Turbine Radar Signature at 13.5 MHz"
C. C. Teague and D. E. Barrick
IEEE OCEANS Conference, Hampton Roads, VA
Oct. 2012
EU.1
"Impact of Wind Turbines on Weather Radars"
OPERA II programme, WD_2006_18
Dec. 2006
EU.2
"Doppler Weather Radars and Wind Turbines"
L. Norin and G. Haase
in Doppler Radar Observations - Weather Radar, Wind Profiler, Ionospheric Radar, and Other
Advanced Applications, J. Bech (Ed.), Croatia: Intech, 2012, pp. 333-354.
EU.3
"Wind Farm Impacts on HF Radar current and Wave Measurements in Liverpool Bay"
L. R. Wyatt and A. M. Robinson, and M. J. Howarth
IEEE OCEANS Conference, Santander, Spain
June 2011
EU.4
"Radar, Radio Links, and Wind Turbines"
60th IEA Topical Expert Meeting, Organized by CENER (National Renewable Energy Centre,
Madrid, Spain)
Senternovem, Netherlands
Nov. 18-19, 2009