Bird density profiles derived from weather radar measurements

Bird density profiles are derived from weather radar volume data in real time, by the vol2bird algorithm as described in Dokter et al. (2011, 2019). The vol2bird algorithm exploits the radar reflectivity characteristics of different scatterers in the atmosphere, in order to distinguish biological from non-biological radar echoes. Once biological scatterers are isolated in the volume files, the reflectivity of these scatterers is converted in an estimate of the bird density per vertical layer of 200m, using a mean cross section of 11 cm2. The vbird profiles are provided for the following radars, with the radar owner in parentheses: Jabbeke (RMI), Wideumont (RMI), Helchteren (VMM), Zaventem (Skeyes), Herwijnen (KNMI), Den Helder (KNMI), Neuheilenbach (DWD), Essen (DWD), Abbeville (Météo-France) and Avesnois (Météo-France).

References:

- Dokter A.M., Liechti F., Stark H., Delobbe L., Tabary P., Holleman I., Bird migration flight altitudes studied by a network of operational weather radars, J. R. Soc. Interface, 8, 30–43, 2011, DOI 10.1098/rsif.2010.0116

- Dokter A.M., Desmet P., Spaaks J.H., van Hoey S., Veen L., Verlinden L., Nilsson C., Haase G., Leijnse H., Farnsworth A., Bouten W., Shamoun-Baranes J., bioRad: biological analysis and visualization of weather radar data, Ecography, 42, 852-860, 2019, DOI 10.1111/ecog.04028

Date (Revision): 2024-10-01

Identifier: RMI-be / crow

Status: On going

Point of contact

Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium

Owner

Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium

Maintenance and update frequency: Continual

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

Atmospheric conditions

Keywords

federal government
weather radar
observation
bird migration
radar ornithology
altitude profile

Spatial scope

National

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: No limitations on public access

Use constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the license.

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Classification: Unclassified

Spatial representation type: Vector

Distance: 5000 http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/ISO_19139_Schemas/resources /uom/ML_gmxUom.xml#m

Metadata language: English

Topic category

Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere

Begin date: 2019-10-16T00:00:00

Unique resource identifier: EPSG:4258

Distribution format

txt ( 1 )

OnLine resource: RMI opendata portal ( WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link )
RMI opendata portal

OnLine resource: Text files HTTP repository ( WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link )
Text files HTTP repository

OnLine resource: Text files FTP repository ( WWW:DOWNLOAD-1.0-ftp--download )
Text files FTP repository

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Other: dataset

Domain consistency

Name of measure: INSPIRE Conformity

Conformance result

Date (Publication): 2010-12-08

Explanation: See the referenced specification

Pass: No

Statement: Bird density profiles are generated for every individual radar volume scan, and hence inherit the time resolution from the originating radar scan cycle. All radars used in this data repository operate in a five minute scan cycle.

The produced output file is a plain text file, and contains a concatenation of subsequent vertical profile outputs (vpts = vertical profile time series). It contains the following columns:

- date: Date (UTC)

- time: Time (UTC)

- HGHT: Height bin (lower bound) in m above ground level.

- u: Speed component west to east in m/s.

- v: Speed component north to south in m/s.

- w: Vertical speed (unreliable!) in m/s.

- ff: Horizontal speed in m/s.

- dd: Direction in degrees clockwise from north.

- sd_vvp: VVP radial velocity standard deviation in m/s.

- gap: Angular data gap detected in T/F.

- dbz: Animal reflectivity factor in dBZ.

- eta: Animal reflectivity in cm2/km3.

- dens: Animal density in animals/km3.

- DBZH: Total reflectivity factor (bio + meteo scattering) in dBZ.

- n: Number of data points used for the ground speed estimates (quantities u, v, w, ff, dd).

- n_all: Number of data points used for the radial velocity standard deviation estimate (quantity sd_vvp).

- n_dbz: Number of data points used for reflectivity-based estimates (quantities dbz, eta, dens).

- n_dbz_all: Number of data points used for the total reflectivity estimate (quantity DBZH).

The bird density profiles are provided as is, without any manual or automatic quality control.