After reviewing the archive it looks like the KUEX radar was set on clear-air mode (here's the inventory color coded by mode: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/nexradinv/displaygraphs.jsp?yyyy=2011&mm=05&dd=01&id=KUEX&product=AAL2 ) but I don't think that explains the burst of activity after sunset. Based on the velocity (20+ kts) and the direction of travel (SE->NW), those are most likely birds. I can't pull an archived radiosonde map for the area at 8pm last night, but I suspect (based on the more current radiosonde data) that the winds between the surface and ~2-3k feet were light enough to allow migration to occur... so I think this is just a case of locally good migration conditions during the period when the highest densities of migrants are likely to fly.
If the meteorologists want to chime in with some archived wind data, that would be cool too! Also, Jeff Buler at U Delaware (also doing some really cool radar ornithology work) pointed me to this very cool website: http://soar.ou.edu/ where you can view the unfiltered NEXRAD data back to 2008 (they are working backwards from 2011 to fill in the missing years). Just make sure you're viewing the non-QC'd mosaic to include biological targets. Cheers David On Mon, May 2, 2011 at 1:17 PM, Bill Evans <wrev...@clarityconnect.com>wrote: > Interesting NEXRAD image from last: substantial migration to the east of > a front in the eastern US, nothing unusual about that, but strange is one > isolated radar lighting up in south-central Nebraska. -Bill E > > > http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/radar/displayRad.php?icao=KUSA&prod=bref1&bkgr=black&endDate=20110502&endTime=4&duration=0 > > -- > > *NFC-L List Info:* > > Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_WELCOME> > > Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_RULES> > > Subscribe, Configuration and > Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> > > *Archives:* > > 1) The Mail > Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> > > 2) Surfbirds <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L> > > 3) BirdingOnThe.Net <http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html> > ------------------------------ > > Please submit your observations to eBird <http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! > > > -- > -- NFC-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
