Radar-based Detection of Birds at Wind Turbine Installations: Results from a Field Study

Radar technology in the mm-wave frequency band is a promising approach for the detection of birds and bats at wind turbine installations in order to reduce fatalities either by direct collision of the animals with the rotor blades or through barotrauma. In this paper we present an FMCW radar system with 1Tx and 9Rx operating in the Ka-band from 33.4GHz to 36.0GHz. The radar system is installed at the tower of a 2MW wind energy plant about 95m above ground. The data acquisition is described in this paper including the real-time processing pipeline, followed by exemplary bird detections. Also the detection of drones, serving here as an artificial flying object with a defined flight path, will be presented and discussed. Validation is performed by concurrent camera recordings.