Sandia National Laboratories and MIT Lincoln Laboratory recently concluded a 7-day field-test campaign in the Tyler, Minn. region to evaluate a long-range radar and other technologies developed to mitigate the effect of wind turbines on radar systems. This test is a follow on to the Interagency Field Test & Evaluation (IFT&E) tests that were conducted in 2012 and 2013.
The U.S. relies on a network of radars across the country to support the missions of homeland defense, homeland security, flight safety, and weather forecasting. The air surveillance environment contains stationary and moving objects within it clutter. Wind turbines present a unique problem in that they can be both stationary and moving clutter and operate with blade tip speeds up to 200 knots, speeds associated with aircraft.
This latest test is part of the new Wind Turbine-Radar Interference Mitigation (WTRIM) Working Group that is co-sponsored by the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency. Unlike the completed IFT&E effort which had a narrow focus on quantifying the impacts of wind turbines on existing radar systems and evaluating near-term technologies proposed by industry to mitigate wind turbine interference, the WTRIM effort will pursue a more ambitious agenda. Not only will it look at technical near-term solutions but it will partner over the long run in examining wind turbine-radar interference mitigations ranging across the technical, project siting, and Federal policy spectrum.
To access to the IFT&E Industry Report visit Sandia’s Wind Turbine/ Radar Interference Mitigation page.
Sandia National Laboratory
www.sandia.gov
Filed Under: News, O&M, Policy
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