Radar And Visual Observations Of Autumnal (Southward) Shorebird Migration On Guam

Several species of shorebirds migrate between eastern Asia and the southern Pacific islands, Australia, and New Zealand. Observations made from Guam (13°25′N, 144°45′E) during autumn 1983 indicate that a significant number of birds take a direct route over the western Pacific Ocean. Radar observations and ground counts of migrants on Guam showed two periods of autumnal migratory activity. The first, largely adult birds, was in August and September. The second, largely juveniles, was in late September and October. Radar indicated that large numbers of birds passed over the island to the south with no evidence of compensation for drift by the easterly winds. Comparison of radar and ground observations on Guam showed that only a small subset of migrants stop on the island, suggesting that some species may make nonstop flights between eastern Asia and the South Pacific

Tracking radar studies of bird migration

The application of tracking radar for determining the flight paths of migratory birds is discussed. The effects produced by various meteorological parameters are described. Samples of radar scope presentations obtained during tracking studies are presented. The characteristics of the radars and their limitations are examined

Radar studies of bird migration

Observations of bird migration with NASA radars were made at Wallops Island, Va. Simultaneous observations were made at a number of radar sites in the North Atlantic Ocean in an effort to discover what happened to those birds that were observed leaving the coast of North America headed toward Bermuda, the Caribbean and South America. Transatlantic migration, utilizing observations from a large number of radars is discussed. Detailed studies of bird movements at Wallops Island are presented

Workload reduction of a generalized Brownian network

We consider a dynamic control problem associated with a generalized Brownian network, the objective being to minimize expected discounted cost over an infinite planning horizon. In this Brownian control problem (BCP), both the system manager's control and the associated cumulative cost process may be locally of unbounded variation. Due to this aspect of the cost process, both the precise statement of the problem and its analysis involve delicate technical issues. We show that the BCP is equivalent, in a certain sense, to a reduced Brownian control problem (RBCP) of lower dimension. The RBCP is a singular stochastic control problem, in which both the controls and the cumulative cost process are locally of bounded variation.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/105051605000000458 in the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Frequency calibration techniques

The techniques and standards used by the U. S. Army Metrology and Calibration Center for frequency calibration are discussed

Comparison of selected lift and sideslip characteristics of the Ayres Thrush S2R-800, winglets off and winglets on, to full-scale wind-tunnel data

All calculations were done in the stability axes system. The winglets used were constructed of modified GA(w)-2 airfoils. Aerodynamic characteristics discussed include: angle of attack; lift-curve slope; side force; yawing moments; rolling moments

Bird Migration Through A Mountain Pass Studied With High Resolution Radar, Ceilometers, And Census

Autumnal migration was studied with high-resolution radar, ceilometer, and daily census in the area of Franconia Notch, a major pass in the northern Appalachian Mountains. Under synoptic conditions favorable for migration, broadfront movements of migrants toward the south passed over the mountains, often above a temperature inversion. Birds at lower elevations appeared to be influenced by local topography. Birds moving southwest were concentrated along the face of the mountain range. Birds appeared to deviate their flights to follow local topography through the pass. Specific migratory behavior was not associated with species or species groups. Under synoptic conditions unfavorable for southward migration, multimodal movements probably associated with local flights were as dense as the southward migrations described above. Avian migrants reacting to local terrain may result in concentrations of migrants over ridge summits or other topographic features

Pattern formation in mixtures of ultracold atoms in optical lattices

Regular pattern formation is ubiquitous in nature; it occurs in biological, physical, and materials science systems. Here we propose a set of experiments with ultracold atoms that show how to examine different types of pattern formation. In particular, we show how one can see the analog of labyrinthine patterns (so-called quantum emulsions) in mixtures of light and heavy atoms (that tend to phase separate) by tuning the trap potential and we show how complex geometrically ordered patterns emerge (when the mixtures do not phase separate), which could be employed for low-temperature thermometry. The complex physical mechanisms for the pattern formation at zero temperature are understood within a theoretical analysis called the local density approximation.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, typeset in ReVTe