GBSC Working Group: "Radar - Weather - Bird Migration"

Chairman: ORR Dipl.-Met. Wilhelm Ruhe M.Sc., Bundeswehr Geoinformation Service
Vice Chairman: Dipl.-Ing. Jürgen Dzuba, German Air Navigation Service

In military aviation, more than 60% of bird-strike incidents occur during low-level and cruise flight. That is why, as early as 1967, a system was set up for monitoring, reporting, forecasting and warning of bird movements. The system is operated by the German military and partly used by the German Air Navigation Services as well. Whereas in the beginning the only data obtained were visual observations provided by civil and military weather stations, today, the main part of the data is derived from air defence radar stations and civil air traffic control radar installations. Bird movements within Germany are monitored and recorded 24/7, increasingly by means of computer-aided, automated procedures. The recorded data are then transferred to a collecting centre, where they are automatically processed into bird-migration forecasts and bird-strike warnings, so-called Birdtams, which are immediately made available for civil and military aviation. As a consequence, considerable restrictions are frequently imposed on military low-level flight, resulting in a marked reduction of bird-strike incidents in military aviation. For civil air traffic, those warnings and forecasts are mainly of theoretical interest. Nonetheless, civil pilots also have the chance to reduce the bird-strike risk by applying special flight procedures. In the future, airport radar facilities will increasingly be used for bird observations. This will enable very specific examinations of bird movements in the vicinity of airports and thus allow for very precise assessments and warnings for the respective area.

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