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Integrative and Comparative Biology Advance Access originally published online on May 8, 2008
Integrative and Comparative Biology 2008 48(1):12-23; doi:10.1093/icb/icn021
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. All rights reserved. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

This article appears in the following Integrative and Comparitive Biology issue: Aeroecology: Probing and Modeling the Aerosphere–The Next Frontier [View the issue table of contents]

Detection and discrimination of fauna in the aerosphere using Doppler weather surveillance radar

Sidney A. Gauthreaux, Jr1, John W. Livingston and Carroll G. Belser
Department of Biological Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634 0314, USA

Correspondence: 1E-mail: sagth{at}clemson.edu

Organisms in the aerosphere have been detected by radar since its development in the 1940s. The national network of Doppler weather radars (WSR-88D) in the United States can readily detect birds, bats, and insects aloft. Level-II data from the radar contain information on the reflectivity and radial velocity of targets and on width of the spectrum (SD of radial velocities in a radar pulse volume). Information on reflectivity can be used to quantify density of organisms aloft and radial velocity can be used to discriminate different types of targets based on their air speeds. Spectral width can also provide some useful information when organisms with very different air speeds are aloft. Recent work with dual-polarization radar suggests that it may be useful for discriminating birds from insects in the aerosphere, but more development and biological validation are required.

From the symposium "Aeroecology: Probing and Modeling the Atmosphere—The Next Frontier" presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, January 2–6, 2008, at San Antonio, Texas.


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