An Advanced Avian Radar Display for Automated Bird Strike Risk Determination for Airports and Airfields

Over the past ten years, development of bird detection radars for use as realtime aircraft birdstrike avoidance systems has moved beyond research and development into active deployment of the technology as an operational tool in a BASH program (Kelly 2006). A key challenge in use of avian radars at both military and commercial airfields however has been integration of the greatly expanded level of risk information provided by avian radar technology into the current procedures and methods for setting bird strike risk conditions at airports and airfields. In the past two years, much of the effort at DeTect, Inc. has been directed at operational deployment of modern avian radar technology and extensive “lessons learned” have resulted from deploying over 30 MERLINTM Avian Radar Systems throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe.