The FlySafe project: How weather radars can improve the en-route bird strike warning system

In civil aviation the majority of bird strikes occur below 1000 ft, thus civil bird strikes predominantly
occur on and around aerodromes. In military aviation, however, the problem is two-fold. Coupled
with the threat on and around airbases, lower operational altitudes create significant risks en-route,
particularly during the migration season. While the local problem is tackled by reducing the number
of birds around an airport, the en-route problem can only be addressed by avoiding extreme bird
densities in flight. This is realised by radar-based BIRDTAMs, already issued for decades in north-
western Europe. Although BIRDTAMS are successful, they may considerably restrict operations in
space and time during mass migration events. Since training missions are costly, timely forecasts and
more accurate altitude information are needed. These issues were partly addressed in the BAM and
FlySafe projects between 2002 and 2009. During this time operational migration forecast models
were developed as well as a bird recognition algorithm for weather radars.