Greetings NFC, I received a comment suggesting that it might be useful for the listserv to review how one knows when NEXRAD reflectivity is birds, insects, and when it is other phenomena.
I think a lot of this comes with field experience over time -- associating nocturnal observations of birds (via acoustic, radar, thermal, moonwatching methods, etc.) with certain types of reflectivity portrayed by NEXRAD. But a good tutorial with some basic examples is found at the Clemson Radar Ornithology Lab's website http://virtual.clemson.edu/groups/birdrad/ This was the first such NEXRAD ornithology website and there may now be other didactic web resources to assist in investigating biotargets on NEXRAD. I'm not as adept at others on this list at understanding NEXRAD and, to be accurate, my earlier post should refer to biotarget activity and not assume targets are birds -- the latter determination of the source of reflectivity is thought to be possible by analyzing speed of targets in relation to wind speed and direction (discussed within the Clemson radar page). For me, in this case, my particular interest involves the isolation of the Montana event (& previously noted NE event) and the fact that I don't recall seeing such isolated NEXRAD blooms in the eastern US. Bill E -- 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/ --