Re: [nfc-l] Radar birds in the west!

2014-03-23 Thread Bryan Guarente 
Jesse,
To answer your question succinctly, yes.  To be more specific, here is a
good map showing radar coverage below 1 feet for all the NEXRAD radars
we have in the contiguous US.

https://www.roc.noaa.gov/WSR88D/Images/WSR-88DCONUSCoverage1000.jpg
OR
https://www.roc.noaa.gov/WSR88D/PublicDocs/WSR-88DCONUSCoverage2011.pdf

(Same maps just different formats)

The white areas are where there is no coverage from a radar (there is an
assumption in that... ask if you need to know).  That should give you a
clue as to where you could see birds on radar in the West.  Now the problem
becomes less concentrating wind patterns in the west and that problem of
terrain for migration.  I have seen on a few occasions migration on radar
in the Front Range of Colorado, but it isn't like you would see out east.
 I tend to see it more as dispersals than I do see it as migration patterns
in the west (anecdotal).  It would makes sense that the places you have
seen migration on radar recently would show up.  Those places all have
really good coverage.

In the West, you have to be better about your radar interpretation,
especially in mountainous areas.  Those wind directions that people like to
pick up on to find birds that are anomalous to the flow are much harder to
understand in the West because of... well... more anomalous flows around
mountains and terrain.  Another reason we might have more trouble seeing
birds in the West on radar is because of flight altitudes.  They may have
to fly higher than most of the radar coverage can see on our normal .5˚
base reflectivity scans.  We can look at other scan levels, but the cone of
visible returns is smaller, and thus limits you even more to seeing
migration.

The last option for why it may be harder in the West to see birds on radar
is because of the locations of our radars.  Aside from beam blockage by
terrain, in very mountainous regions with radars, the radars can be more
affected by temperature inversions which can cause significant beam
refraction (even making it refract all the way to the ground) making for
very hard to read radar echoes and often beams that don't make it high
enough into the atmosphere to intersect with migrating birds.

Hope that helps.  If you have any questions, radar or meteorology-wise,
please feel free to ask.  I can try to explain further or point you to
resources that may be useful in this pursuit.

Good luck.
Bryan

Bryan Guarente
Instructional Designer/Meteorologist
UCAR/The COMET Program
Boulder, CO


On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 12:25 AM, Jesse Ellis  wrote:

> Hey all-
>
> I should probably go outside and listen... Anyway, I've asked about this
> before, whether one can ever see birds on radar in the west. It looks like
> a lot of birds are hitting the Gulf tonight, and heading north toward the
> eastern Great Lakes, but you can also see pulses as night falls in Arizona,
> and on radar in Yuma and the central part of the Central Valley in
> California. (Also possibly along the Front Range in CO?) Can anyone with
> more experience confirm this?
>
> Thanks much, and good night birding,
> Jesse Ellis
>
> --
> Jesse Ellis
> Post-doctoral Researcher
> Dept. of Integrative and Comparative Biology,
> UCLA
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Re:[nfc-l] Radar birds in the west!

2014-03-22 Thread Jesse Ellis 
I apologize - I forgot the link:
https://people.mbi.ohio-state.edu/hurtado.10/US_Composite_Radar/2014-3-21/


Hey all-
>
> I should probably go outside and listen... Anyway, I've asked about this
> before, whether one can ever see birds on radar in the west. It looks like
> a lot of birds are hitting the Gulf tonight, and heading north toward the
> eastern Great Lakes, but you can also see pulses as night falls in Arizona,
> and on radar in Yuma and the central part of the Central Valley in
> California. (Also possibly along the Front Range in CO?) Can anyone with
> more experience confirm this?
>
> Thanks much, and good night birding,
> Jesse Ellis
>


On Fri, Mar 21, 2014 at 11:25 PM, Jesse Ellis  wrote:

> Hey all-
>
> I should probably go outside and listen... Anyway, I've asked about this
> before, whether one can ever see birds on radar in the west. It looks like
> a lot of birds are hitting the Gulf tonight, and heading north toward the
> eastern Great Lakes, but you can also see pulses as night falls in Arizona,
> and on radar in Yuma and the central part of the Central Valley in
> California. (Also possibly along the Front Range in CO?) Can anyone with
> more experience confirm this?
>
> Thanks much, and good night birding,
> Jesse Ellis
>
> --
> Jesse Ellis
> Post-doctoral Researcher
> Dept. of Integrative and Comparative Biology,
> UCLA
>



-- 
Jesse Ellis
Post-doctoral Researcher
Dept. of Integrative and Comparative Biology,
UCLA

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