FAA: Controversial Cape Wind project could be radar hazard

bostonherald.com via AP ^ | February 14, 2009 - | AP

[GQuagmire]

BOSTON — The Federal Aviation Administration says the 130 turbines planned for the Cape Wind project could interfere with air traffic control radar systems.

The FAA said in a report Friday that the rotating blades on the 440-foot tall turbines could cause unwanted "clutter" in the systems.

But the agency also said an upgrade to the radar facility at Otis Air Force Base could fix the hazard.

[GQuagmire]

Ted Kennedy still fighting behind the scenes to quash Cape Wind to ruin his precious view of Nantucket Sound............

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The fix is in.

[hinckley buzzard]

Fortunately by the time the final decision is made he'll be gone.

[ontap]

That decision can not come fast enough for me!

[darkwing104]

That old "Do as I say but not as I do" thing again...

Dear Kennedy's

You are no longer the "Royal Family"...Gov Paterson took care of that

[GQuagmire]

Ted Kennedy still fighting behind the scenes to quash Cape Wind to ruin his precious view of Nantucket Sound............

Ted Kennedy still fighting behind the scenes to quash Cape Wind from ruining his precious view of Nantucket Sound............(fixed)

[Condor51]

'FAA: Controversial Cape Wind project could be radar hazard'

"But the agency also said an upgrade to the radar facility at Otis Air Force Base could fix the hazard.

Uh... then couldn't the HL be....

'FAA: Cape Wind project would not be hazard with radar upgrade'

Then again, without "Controversial" it kinda kills the story don't it ;-)

[org.whodat]

Ted Kennedy still fighting behind the scenes to quash Cape Wind to ruin his precious view of Nantucket Sound............

Dead ON!!!! I picked that word for a purpose, the fight will soon be over.

[GQuagmire]

Problem is someone from the clan will continue the fight.Probably the future widow Ms. Vicki, who by the way,thinks she’s going to waltz into Ted’s seat.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Interference with ATC radar is not a serious issue, just more NIMBY pettifogging. (Weather radar is another issue.)

I suspect that Cape Wind will really be more of a tax farm than a wind farm, I doubt that it will be economically viable as a source of energy.

[Habibi]

“the 440-foot tall turbines could cause unwanted “clutter” in the systems.”

Pure BS (technically speaking). Air traffic control systems use two type of radar, primary - which relies on bouncing the actual radar off the skin of the aircraft, and secondary - which relies on interrogating a transponder aboard the aircraft that is transmitting a discrete code (radar beacon). Secondary radar is the method used for modern ATC systems. Primary radar systems are not used by ATC, unless the secondary system is down. It’s akin to a backup/emergency mode.

Primary radar is used for air defense purposes (which is what I think this report is talking about), so why would the FAA be squawking about a DOD issue?

One do wonder.

[muawiyah]

We could still get far more power simply by placing a power turbine array across the Bay of Fundy. The tides there are among the largest in the world ~ I think there’s a spot in West Antarctica’s peninsula where this can work, and also Inchon ~

[Western Phil]

“Interference with ATC radar is not a serious issue, just more NIMBY pettifogging. (Weather radar is another issue.)”

The Twin Groves wind farm east of Bloomington, Illinois shows up on the Lincoln, Il weather radar on fairly rare occasions. It can be identified on the time lapse radar by a stationary green, either with no other weather action or with storm systems moving by. It probably fouls up radar derived rainfall totals.

My guess is that it is caused by moisture on the blades.

[popdonnelly]

Idiotic. We can build conventional sources of electric power with minimal environmental impact. But we allow Washington to be run by the environmental whack-a-doodles.

[Ed Condon]

The easy fix would be to install an SIF transponder on each of the wind turbines. Interesting that you used the term “squawk” to mean complain.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I refrained from mentioning weather radar. Interference with ATC radar is a bad joke.

Weather radar, otoh, is a different issue. Weather radar are much more sensitive than ATC radar. They take long dwells with very high Doppler resolution and attempt to filter out ground clutter. Typically, precipation has a velocity spread of a few meters per second, so even in places where average range rate (and hence Doppler) is very low, there is a reasonable signal and they infer the mean reflectivity from the available clutter free spectrum.

Regardless of whether or not the blades are wet, they will look huge compared to moderate to light rainfall and their Doppler spectrum will appear white, it will fill all Doppler bins. Returns can enter the radar through antenna sidelobes or by refraction under “favorable” conditions.

Many ATC radar have ancillary weather channels. They use the same pulses as the ATC radar, but have separate receivers and signal processing optimized for weather processing. Since these radars are optimized for the ATC mission, they don’t make very good weather radars, regardless, hence things like TDR (Terminal Doppler Radar, basically, windshear monitors.) I suspect that any ATC radar with those towers in their field of view will be blind to weather at the same range-azimuth coordinates.