Weather radars “see” more than just weather, they continuously register also biological activity in the air. This has recently been used in many studies of bird migration and bird movements, but it is unclear to what extent insects are captured by the radars. In a validation campaign in Texas, USA, data was gathered by a small-scale radar, purposely built to monitor both insects and birds, positioned close to a large weather radar. We now want to compare the insect data gathered by the small biological radar to biological data extracted from the weather radar, to identify to what extent weather radars can be used for insect monitoring globally. I am looking for a highly motivated student to compare the data from these two radar systems, to analyze differences and similarities in phenology, numbers, and movements of insect echoes.
Contact: Cecilia Nilsson, cecilia.nilsson@biol.lu.se