Weather surveillance radar as an objective tool for monitoring bat phenology and biogeography

• Main Authors: Phillip M. Stepanian, Charlotte E. Wainwright, Winifred F. Frick, Jeffrey F. Kelly
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2019-09-01
• Series: The Journal of Engineering
• Subjects: doppler radar; meteorological radar; diseases; radar polarimetry; search radar; agriculture; bats; global bat monitoring infrastructure; weather surveillance radar; objective tool; bat phenology; vital services; pollinating plants; agricultural pests; disease vectors; direct importance; spatiotemporal scales; high-altitude flights; continental scales; polarimetric doppler weather radars; bat colonies; radar surveillance
• Online Access: https://digital-library.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/joe.2019.0595

Bats provide a wealth of vital services to humans, such as pollinating plants and managing populations of insects that act as agricultural pests and disease vectors. Despite their direct importance, it is inherently difficult to monitor bats across large spatiotemporal scales, in part due to their nocturnal activity and long-distance, high-altitude flights. Networks of weather surveillance radars provide continuous measurements of the airspace at continental scales, revealing the abundance, distribution, behaviour, and phenology of bats aloft. Using a network of polarimetric Doppler weather radars in the USA, we demonstrate applications of this technology to monitor large bat colonies, highlight recent discoveries made using radar surveillance of bats, and discuss future prospects for extending these techniques as part of a standardised system of global bat monitoring infrastructure.