Numerical Approximation Methods for Antenna Radiation Patterns for Motus Wildlife Tracking Systems

TL;DR

This paper presents a cost-effective and robust numerical method to calibrate offshore wildlife tracking stations, enabling high-resolution tracking of migratory birds and bats by approximating antenna radiation patterns.

Contribution

It introduces a novel calibration methodology that converts raw data into detailed antenna radiation patterns for offshore wildlife tracking stations.

Findings

Effective calibration process developed for offshore environments

Improved accuracy in antenna radiation pattern approximation

Facilitates high-resolution migratory bird and bat tracking

Abstract

As plans for offshore wind energy development increase in the US, the developing methods to monitor migratory birds and bats offshore is an important area of research. To contribute to this research, current guidance recommends the deployment of Motus Wildlife Tracking stations by each developer for pre- and post- construction monitoring. To understand the characteristics of each of the stations, calibration techniques are recommended for each deployment. Despite this, previous attempts to calibrate these stations has failed to provide sufficient detail to allow for high-resolution tracking techniques. In this paper, we introduce an affordable and robust methodology to calibrate stations in the off-shore environment and develop processes to turn this raw calibration data into a numerical approximation of the antennas radiation pattern.