A new antenna on the International Space Station and receptors on the Argos satellite are allowing scientists to remotely monitor small animal and songbird.
A new antenna on the International Space Station and receptors on the Argos satellite are allowing scientists to remotely monitor small animal and songbird.
That antenna was first turned on about two years ago, “but there were some glitches with the power-supply and the computer, so we had to bring it down again with a Russian rocket, then transport it from Moscow to Germany to fix it,” said Martin Wikelski, director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, whose scientific team is honing the technology. After “the usual troubleshooting for space science, the antenna was turned back on this spring.
As researchers deploy precision tags, Wikelski envisions the development of “an ‘Internet of animals’ a collection of sensors around the world giving us a better picture of the movement of life on the planet.”
A new antenna on the International Space Station and receptors on the Argos satellite are allowing scientists to remotely monitor small animal and songbird.
With new technological advances, including smaller, lighter tracking chips, scientists can tag a larger variety of bird species. The data from these tags, which can be retrieved without re-capture, may solve mysteries about migratory patterns and population decline.