34 / 82
An ambitious project to track
the global migration pattern
and behaviour of birds from
space using a small satellite
is well underway. The size
and extreme conditions that
such a satellite - termed
‘Cubesat’ - will experience
during the mission puts huge
pressures on the electronic
systems employed. This means
that WUSAT - the Warwick
University Satellite Team
which is developing satellites
for this project – must be
very innovative in design, and
must select components that
are capable of performing
reliably under such harsh
environments.
Billions of birds, bats and large insects
migrate long distances annually,
sometimes between continents. So
far, scientists have been unable to
follow such small creatures individually
during their journeys. However,
knowledge of individual movement
patterns is essential for an ecological
and evolutionary understanding of
dispersal. ICARUS, an acronym for
'International Cooperation for Animal
Research Using Space', is a global
collaboration of animal scientists which
plans to establish a satellite-based
infrastructure to observe not only
migratory birds and bats, but also sea
turtles.
ICARUS
(http://icarusinitiative.org/science-projects) will help solve
two major enigmas in biology: we
need to understand the ontogeny of
behavioural and movement traits of
animals in the wild; and the selection
acting on individuals in the wild (i.e.
where, why and when do individuals
die). It is envisaged that the ICARUS
small animal tracking system will
enable researchers to address some
major concerns, such as:
Spread of infectious diseases (via
birds, bats, rodents or insects)
Relationship between biological
diversity and ecosystem functioning
Follow and predict bird presence, to
enhance aviation safety
Migration routes and patterns
WUSAT’s latest CubeSat satellite -
designed to be launched from the
International Space Station (ISS) -
aims to work in collaboration with the
ICARUS system. GPS, 3D acceleration
and other data collected in black-
box-loggers on individual animals is
transmitted in small data packages to
these Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites
where it is decoded and downlinked to
a ground station.
WUSAT, working in conjunction
with world-renowned electronics
engineering consultancy, Roke Manor
Research, is one of the partners
developing the LEO Cubesat. Warwick
University’s WUSAT team has been
established for ten years and since
2012 it has been developing its own
Satellite-based bird tracking system relies on
high-rel interconnect technology
Scott Flower, Harwin
34 l New-Tech Magazine Europe