Simplified characterization of Radar Cross Section of wind turbines in the air surveillance radars band

There is clear evidence that, above or within a region where wind farms are present, the normal functioning of Air Traffic Control (ATC) radars might be significantly impacted. In order to prevent these cases of impact, it is important to be able to identify the potential degradation of the service before it occurs. One of the most difficult tasks to achieve that goal is effectively characterizing the Radar Cross Section (RCS) of the wind turbines to be installed. In opposition to rigorous methods that can be computationally demanding, or constant representative RCS values than cannot accurately represent the real wind turbine models given the multitude of factors affecting RCS, in this paper a simplified RCS model to estimate the potential impact of wind turbines on Air Traffic Control radars is proposed. This model is validated against real measurements of RCS of a wind turbine, showing good agreement and highlighting the usefulness of the proposal.