Large-scale bird surveillance technology using operational weather radar

Abstract

The operational weather radar network is highly suitable for large-scale bird monitoring and early warning systems. This study discusses, compares and contrasts current state-of-the-art technologies for large-scale bird surveillance – including manual observation, satellite tracking, dedicated avian radar and the operational weather radar network – evaluating their respective strengths, limitations and applicability for different monitoring scenarios. Key research questions focus on how to extract reliable bird movement information from weather radar data and how such data can support ecological studies and aviation safety. From the perspective of radar signal analysis, we examine the characteristics of bird echoes in terms of reflectivity, altitude distribution, flight speed and direction. We further review and compare methodologies for distinguishing bird echoes from weather and ground clutter, including clutter suppression, meteorological echo removal, feature extraction, machine learning classification and cross-validation with auxiliary data. Our synthesis demonstrates that weather radar can effectively identify and track bird movements over wide areas, providing valuable data on migration patterns and flight behaviours. These findings have practical significance for applications in avian ecology research and bird strike prevention in aviation.