Wind Turbine Impacts on Environment Canada Weather Radar Data

This thesis investigates the occurrence of wind turbine clutter (WTC) on Canadian weather radar data and provides a detailed comparison to expectations from developed radar line of sight (RLOS) tools for three wind farms under standard atmospheric conditions. Tools were developed to study factors which impact WTC such as wind turbine orientation, and atmospheric propagation of the radar beam using atmospheric profile data. The results indicate that standard methods of RLOS calculations may need to take into account other factors as WTC was observed even when RLOS tools indicated the wind turbines would not intercept the main radar beam. Additionally, Canadian Turbine Interference Products (C-TRIP) were created in order to assist Environment Canada’s meteorologists in the identification of WTC given existing wind farm locations.