Innovative Signal Processing Techniques for Mitigation of Wind Turbine Farm Interference in Airborne Radar Systems

Wind farms located within the line of sight of airborne radar systems can degrade the ability of the radars to perform their intended function of detecting and tracking aircraft. The magnitude of the impact will depend upon the location, number, size, and structural properties of the turbines. Wind turbines can generate a considerable amount of interference in the form of both stationary and non-stationary clutter returns. Stationary clutter can result from the tower or nacelle being with the field of view of the radar system and non-stationary clutter can result from the blade rotation. This strong interference will typically overwhelm radar signal processors and manifest itself as an increase in false alarms and initiation of false target tracks. In addition, the presence of wind turbines in the path of a radar beam creates a shadow region behind the wind farm within which aircraft would be masked from detection. The GSG proposed solution will enable airborne radar systems to perform their intended functions with a high probability of detection and low false alarm rate. The method utilizes advanced matrix methods and transform methods to identify and remove turbine signatures embedded within radar time series data prior to detection processing.