Affordable avian radar surveillance systems for natural resource management and BASH applications

Abstract

Affordable avian surveillance radar systems have been developed for natural resource management (NRM) and bird air strike hazard (BASH) applications. The system design described herein demonstrates that affordable, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) marine radars combined with COTS personal computers (PCs) and sophisticated radar processing software can meet system requirements. Real performance data obtained using the Navy's eBirdRad radar unit installed at Patuxent River Naval Air Station demonstrate a significant advancement in state-of-the-art bird detection and tracking. This provides the impetus for maturing the technology into fully operational systems.