TLDR; White lights are used during the daytime, red lights at night (less annoying), towers under 200 feet don't need blinking lights.
You'd get the same phenomenon that you see when operating turn signals in traffic. They seem to weave "in and out" of sync. The frequency at which that happens is the beat frequency, i.e. the difference between the two blinking frequencies.
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.)
presumably this makes it more striking, and thus easier to notice and avoid
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.
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2024/what-happens-when-you...
scblock•1h ago
Johnny555•15m ago
https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/airports/engineering...