Wind turbine clutter observations and theoretical validation for meteorological radar applications

Abstract

The use of wind energy is gaining importance because of its many advantages. Nations worldwide are promoting the installation of wind farms to produce electricity in an attempt to tackle climate change and increasing oil costs. However, wind turbines can generate undesired signals that disturb the performance of radar systems. In particular, this is an issue for weather radar networks that see wind turbines as clutter, since they have a strong influence on meteorological outputs such as the estimation of rain intensity or wind velocity. This study develops a simulated scenario and a radar signal model that justify collection of live data from the Spanish Weather Radar Network. Simulated and real data are discussed for both the spotlight and exploration modes. As an application example, a simple algorithm has been developed to estimate wind direction in the immediate vicinity of wind turbines. In this context, it is clear that some meteorological information may be extracted from the wind turbine clutter itself.