1. Applying Remote Sensing to Avian Research
Using NEXRAD Technology to Study Neotropical Bird Migration
By: Amanda Turek
Andrew Walton

2. Facts About Neotropical Bird Migration
What is a neotropical bird?
Why do these birds migrate?

3. Why do we care about their migration?
Placement of cell towers, wind turbines, and most appropriate airplane routes
High cost of bird strikes
to aviation industry
Protection of key
stopover sites

4. Major North American Flightways
“The common highways that different bird species use for their unique migration routes”
4 major flightways:
Atlantic
Mississippi
Central
Pacific

5. Using Radar to Detect Migration
Radar: Radio Detection And Ranging
Uses microwave part of electromagnetic spectrum (1cm-100cm)
Active sensor (allowing data collection at night- birds fly at night during migration!)

6. Doppler Radar
Doppler Effect discovered by Austrian scientist Christian Doppler in 1842
Doppler Effect = “the physical phenomenon marked by change in frequency dependent on the motion of an object toward or away from a point”

7. Doppler Radar (cont’d)
Is primarily a weather radar
Projects radio waves from an antenna
Objects in the air “scatter” the waves back
Rain, snow, hail
Dust & particulates
Insects, bats, BIRDS
Measures change in frequency of scattered waves

8. NEXRAD
Next Generation Weather Radars
A.k.a. “88D”

9. NEXRAD (cont’d) Maximum range: 143 miles 2 modes Precipitation Mode
Clear Air Mode

10. Using NEXRAD to Detect Birds
How to tell birds from precipitation (in Clear Air Mode):
Frequency
Light rain dBZ
Birds <30 dBZ
(Severe Thunderstorm dBZ… Precipitation Mode only)
Velocity
Direction

11. Precipitation Mode

12. Clear Air Mode

13. Detecting Velocity

14. Conclusion
NEXRAD and GIS have been successfully combined to produce maps of key stopover sites in need of protection.
"One man's meat is another man's poison" paraphrased One scientist's contamination is another scientist's data.

15. Acknowledgements
Airforce Link website:
Aviation Safety Division website:
“Bird Migration”:
College of Dupage; Next Generation Weather Lab, Understanding Velocity Data webpage:
Dr. Nancy French, “Intro to Imaging Radar Basics”, lecture 16: 2004
Smithsonian National Zoological Park website:
The Nutty Birdwatcher, “North American Migration Flyways,”
The New Jersey Audubon Society website:
Willams, Jack. The USA Today Weather Book