[floatrock]

Yeah, I've seen it with windfarms. Always wondered why do they need to blink at the same time. The scale of the blink is pretty jarring at night (but also awe-some, in the same way any big enough infrastructure project inspires a kind of awe).

Wind farms have a certain amount of nimbyism because they "spoil the natural landscape." (So do regular farms -- nothing natural about grain silos or row crops, but that's a side topic...) Anyways, having that many towers blink in unison across that big a landscape is a weird effect when you first see it. I think there's an argument that if they blinked independently it would feel more natural in a way.

But since the blinking is all FAA requirements, I assume it's to help identify all the individual towers from the air. I suppose if they were all blinking independently, it would be a predator-trying-to-focus-on-a-single-zebra-in-the-herd problem, except in this case the predator is a pilot trying not to crash into a turbine.

Sure would emit more subtle 'part of the landscape' vibes though.

(Which I guess is exactly what you don't want when you're flying above them. Sigh.)

[scblock]

It's so pilots see the entire wind farm as a single entity and can interpret what they see and understand the extent of the wind farm easily. There is a pretty good study you can read on this:

https://www.airporttech.tc.faa.gov/DesktopModules/EasyDNNNew...

As to community impact, radar-activated lighting is an approach that is being used in places this is a concern. It allows the lights to remain off unless there is a plane within the envelope that requires the lights to activate. It's expensive though.

[mulmen]

Does it have to be radar? Can it use ADS-B?

[buildsjets]

Little cropdusters and sport aircraft are who the anticollision lights are designed intended to protect, and many of them are not ADS-B equipped.

In the US, ADS-B is not required below 10,000 feet and when more than 30 miles away from the 30 largest commercial airports.

[estimator7292]

This is a safety measure. You can't rely on ALL aircraft having functional (or installed) transponders. You must actively sense incoming craft because they don't always politely announce themselves.

[wiml]

At small unattended airfields, you can sometimes turn on the field lights by transmitting on a particular frequency (as if you were calling the non-existent tower in quick succession).

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2017/march/flig...

(Of course, in this case it works because the pilot already knows the airfield is there.)

[scblock]

The FAA document says "sensor-based" but every installation I have seen in the US uses radar.

[evertedsphere]

> Always wondered why do they need to blink at the same time.

presumably this makes it more striking, and thus easier to notice and avoid