Bird strike risk mitigation using avian radar and ADS-B

Abstract

This research investigates taking avian radar target detections from an avian radar system and producing target reports that are suitable for distribution within the National Airspace System (NAS) to mitigate bird strike risk on aircraft. Radar target detections are obtained in the All-purpose STructured Eurocontrol suRveillance Information eXchange (ASTERIX) air traffic control (ATC) standard data format developed by Eurocontrol. This data, which is often sent as User Datagram Protocol (UDP) traffic over a network, contains information about both the radar targets and the radar system itself, and the format is flexible with more than 60 different categories of messages. Once decoded, the radar data and information from other sources, including received ADS-B position reports of aircraft in the area and geographic information about the airport, are fed into an Avian Target Processor which intelligently filters the data using a custom designed algorithm. The Avian Target Processor aims to reduce the total number of reports by removing target detections which do not meet a threshold of risk to the aircraft based on multiple factors. Once the reports are filtered, they can be transmitted through the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) standard (i.e., universal access transceiver (UAT), 1090ES) as traffic targets. These avian target reports may be transmitted to the airport Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower and aircraft users within the operational range of the airport. Details for formatting the bird detections as avian target reports using an ADS-B message structure within the UAT frame structure are presented. The overall design of using avian radar and ADS-B as well as the avian message formatting the ADS-B Segment of the UAT Frame are included in this paper. The authors also believe this type of architecture and detection system can be applied to detect other low radar cross section (RCS) targets (e.g., UASs) that may operate in and around the airport property and present a potential risk to airborne aircraft.