During September and October of 2015 working group 2 of ENRAM arranged a large scale calibration campaign in southern Sweden, at the Kullaberg nature reserve.

The aim of the campaign is partly to monitor the migration of birds and insects over the Kullaberg nature reserve, but mostly to compare the results from the different small scale radars to each other and to SMHIs weather radar.

Four different radar systems dedicated to following biological targets joined the campaign. The Swiss Vogelwarte “birdscan” vertical looking radar, Ornis Italicas marine radar, the Rothamsted research insect vertical looking radar and the Lund University tracking radar. They were all gathered at the site, which is approximately 20km from the newly upgraded SMHI weather radar in Ängelholm.

Preliminary results look very promising, and many birds were tracked by the different systems. Unfortunately not as many insects, but there was still some. Now we will analyze the data, comparing results both between the radar systems dedicated to biological targets and to the weather radar.

The project received funding from Gyllenstienska Krapperupstiftelsen and support from ENRAM and the Center for Animal Movement Research (Canmove) at Lund University.

Photo: Aron Hejdström