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Flocks of migratory birds are very often using geographic structures like rivers, valleys or coast lines for orientation. Wherever the preferred migration routes are crossing the approach corridor of an airport there is an increased risk of bird strike. Flocks of birds crossing the runway corridor of the new runway Northwest of the Frankfurt airport are kept under surveillance now with in total three watch towers located at the river Main which in this case is the preferred used line of orientation. Each of the watch towers carries an early warning system which consists of two pairs of stereoscopic thermal imaging cameras sensitive in the mid wavelength infrared range (3 - 5 m). A stereoscopic pair measures the swarm size, direction of flight and velocity in real time and with high accuracy. From these results an early warning is derived under all relevant weather conditions. The fixed focus thermal imaging cameras are thermally compensated and designed for ultra low image distortion. Each stereoscopic pair is aligned in the sub-pixel range and is controlled by a reference beam to ensure that the alignment is preserved under all environmental conditions and over a very long time. The technical concept is discussed and the design of the realized warning system at the Frankfurt airport is presented.

For long ranging imaging in high performing electro-optical systems visible cameras with HDTV resolution (1920x1080) are becoming the standard sensor for observation purposes during day. During night and for thermal imaging, significant reduced resolution has to be accepted over a long period of time due to non-availability of adequate infrared detectors. In the meantime standard detectors with 1280x1024 are available on the market which provide at least SXGA resolution. ATTICA M is the newest member of Carl Zeiss Optronics ATTICA family of cooled thermal imagers, which uses an infrared detector with 1280x1024 pixels. ATTICA M can operate with a variety of infrared detectors either based on InSb or MCT as a detector material. ATTICA M is form and fit to the well known ATTICA Z and ATTICA P which is integrated in several military platforms in series production and can consequently be used to upgrade the related platforms. In detail three variants with different zoom optics covering the field of view range between 1,4° - 30° are available for a large scope of applications, on land, on the sea or in the air. A newly developed video electronic is capable to operate the Megapixel detector as well as future dual band thermal imager detectors as soon as they are available on the market. The features and options are discussed as well as the performances compared to the current thermal imager generation.