Current Systems

     Background

The two systems that are currently being used for estimating wildlife strike hazard are the U.S. Air Force's Bird Avoidance Model, and the Avian Research Laboratory's Avian Hazard Advisory System. These tools provide information regarding bird strike risk, and allow pilots to make informed decisions about their routes with regards to wildlife strike risk.

     Bird Avoidance Model

The Bird Avoidance Model (BAM) is the U.S. Air Force's primary bird strike risk assessment tool. BAM is an historical archive of bird information, taking data from more than 10,000 locations over the past 30 years, for over 50 different bird species. BAM incorporates information on bird populations and distributions with environmental and geographic information to arrive at bird strike risk estimates for a selected route, biweekly period, and time of day.

While of primary use for the U.S. Air Force in determining strike hazard over low-level routes, BAM is also used by the AHAS system to predict bird strike risk (see below).

The following references contain information on the Bird Avoidance Model:

• BAM: Bird Avoidance Model

     Avian Hazard Advisory System

The Avian Hazard Advisory System (AHAS) is a risk assessment tool that provides the user with a standardized measure of bird strike risk for low level routes. AHAS calculates risk by measuring the number of bird strikes in a particular area, and the average mass of the birds from the FAA database. AHAS also incorporates weather radar data from NEXRAD, historical information (BAM) and predictive models to determine current bird activity. AHAS provides strike risk assessment for VR Routes, IR Routes, Ranges, MOA's and Military Airfields

The following references contain information on the Avian Hazard Advisory System:

• AHAS: The Avian Hazard Advisory System