(IVAR) - Final Report - Strategic Environmental Research and ...

operations personnel or their contractors will continue to play an important role in the effective
use of bird radar system deployed at airports. Further, the survey results also identified the need
for airport radar systems to provide alarms when system health degrades and their ability to track
objects with the same level of efficacy is compromised.
Conclusions
Performance Criterion PB5.1 has been demonstrated by soliciting feedback from two wildlife
biologists at SEA who rated the avian radar system operating there as better than good (3.4 on a
scale of 1-5, Appendix E). Although the evaluation period lasted only 10 hours, the biologists’
remarks in the survey instrument indicated a general improvement in real-time situational
awareness, most noticeably related to the overall increase in the number of likely bird tracks that
were repeatedly seen near the airport compared to what they normally saw while driving the
airfield and searching for birds.
6.3.1.5 AUTOMATIC EARLY WARNING OF DEVELOPING BIRD HAZARDS [PC6.1]
Objective
We designed Performance Criterion PC6.1, Automatic Early Warning of Developing Bird
Hazards, to demonstrate the capability of a TVW running in near-real time to issue automatic
early warning of developing bird hazards derived from the behavior of the real-time tracks. This
demonstration builds on Performance Criterion PC4.1, in that a DRP, a TVW, and a RDS are
connected to the same LAN.
In this demonstration we used plots and tracks files containing an event that occurred on 15
January 2008 at NASWI. This near-miss event involved a flock 23 of a thousand or more Blackbellied
Plovers that flew directly down Runway 25, narrowly missing several aircraft that were
on approach for landing. The event was recorded by the WIAR1 radar and also observed
visually by BASH personnel who were at the radar trailer at the time.
Our objective in the design of this test was to demonstrate that had an automatic alarm been set
for this type of event, an unattended radar could have warned the appropriate personnel in time
for them to respond. In order to satisfy Performance Criterion PC6.1, the email alert had to be
transmitted at least 1 minute prior to the designated event – enough time to alert control tower or
wildlife management personnel to the developing hazard so they could take appropriate actions.
Methods
We implemented the prescribed test layout for demonstration of PC6.1 as follows:
• A DRP and an RDS were connected to the same LAN.
• Plots and tracks files containing the near-miss event from 15 January 2008 at NASWI
were loaded into the DRP application.
• Target data from the near-miss event were streamed from the DRP to the RDS.
23
As can be seen in Figure 6-92 and following, the flock of Black-bellied Plovers broke up into smaller
aggregations of birds that were then tracked individually by the radar. In the discussions that follow we use the
singular, “flock”, because both the visual observers and the behavior of the birds confirmed they were all part of a
large flock.
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