{"id":3795,"date":"2024-01-18T14:50:31","date_gmt":"2024-01-18T14:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.zeiss.com\/sports-optics\/birding\/en\/?p=3795"},"modified":"2024-01-18T16:21:30","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T16:21:30","slug":"how-thermal-imaging-technology-assists-in-research-and-monitoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.zeiss.com\/sports-optics\/birding\/en\/how-thermal-imaging-technology-assists-in-research-and-monitoring\/","title":{"rendered":"How Thermal Imaging Technology assists in Research and Monitoring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Studying offshore night migration <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My name is Shannon Curley, I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology where I study offshore bird migration using Weather Surveillance Radar with the BirdCast<\/a> team, a collaborative group of researchers using weather surveillance radar to understand migratory movements of birds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ZEISS DTI 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A challenge in studying migration is that the vast majority of migration happens at night, making ground observations challenging. This fall, ZEISS offered us the opportunity to use the DTI 4\/35, a high-resolution thermal imaging camera, to assist in our research. This camera was incredibly useful for our research and provided new and unexpected avenues for our future work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mounting the camera vertically, I was able to record birds during their migratory journeys. I was amazed by the resolution and how well the camera picked up on birds flying at different altitudes. The night of October 23, 2023, was the largest migration night of the year in New York State. BirdCast estimated over 12 million birds traversing the airspace. I was fortunate to record this event from Queens County, and it was one of the most amazing spectacles I have ever seen, as a constant stream of birds crossed the camera’s field of view during the night. During the season, the DTI allowed us to record the intensity and direction of migration at a fine scale along and provided visual footage for science communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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