Bird Strike Committee Proceedings
Date of this Version
August 2000
Abstract
The Avian Hazard Advisory System (AHAS) was developed to use NEXRAD weather radar data and National Weather Service (NWS) weather data to forecast and monitor bird activity. The system was tested in a pilot study in 1998 and became operational for the eastern 1/3 of the USA in March 2000. Two thousand low level routes, ranges, airspace and military airfields are evaluated every hour. The monitoring of birds in near real time uses algorithms developed by Geo-Marine, Inc to isolate biological targets from weather. Removing the weather returns permits subsequent processing to retrieve information on bird strike risk to be fully automated. Development of additional algorithms to isolate specific classes of biological targets is underway. These new radar datasets are in Geographic Information System (GIS) format and are being used for improving bird strike risk models and for conservation and ecological applications.