Avian radar system using phased array radar technologies

Following the 2009 U.S. Airways Flight 1549 accident, which resulted from a collision with birds, commercial avian radar systems, primarily based on marine radar technologies, have become increasingly widespread. In this paper, we propose an avian radar system that utilizes both the wingbeat corner reflector effect and pulse-Doppler phased array radar technologies. Our experimental results show that our system can detect avian targets (the standard avian target (SAT), SATs) up to 10 km and 20 km away, significantly further than the current 2 km and 6 km reported by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Furthermore, our system has a much shorter detection response time (DRT) of less than 30 ms, compared to the current 5 s reported by the FAA. These findings suggest that the current avian radar systems model should be reviewed to improve its accuracy and effectiveness.