New-Tech Europe Magazine | August 2016 | Digital edition

Satellite-based bird tracking system relies on high-rel interconnect technology

Scott Flower, Harwin

An ambitious project to track the global migration pattern and behaviour of birds from space using a small satellite is well underway. The size and extreme conditions that such a satellite - termed ‘Cubesat’ - will experience during the mission puts huge pressures on the electronic systems employed. This means that WUSAT - the Warwick University Satellite Team which is developing satellites for this project – must be very innovative in design, and must select components that are capable of performing reliably under such harsh environments. Billions of birds, bats and large insects migrate long distances annually, sometimes between continents. So far, scientists have been unable to follow such small creatures individually

during their journeys. However, knowledge of individual movement patterns is essential for an ecological and evolutionary understanding of dispersal. ICARUS, an acronym for 'International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space', is a global collaboration of animal scientists which plans to establish a satellite-based infrastructure to observe not only migratory birds and bats, but also sea turtles. ICARUS (http://icarusinitiative.org/ science-projects) will help solve two major enigmas in biology: we need to understand the ontogeny of behavioural and movement traits of animals in the wild; and the selection acting on individuals in the wild (i.e. where, why and when do individuals die). It is envisaged that the ICARUS small animal tracking system will enable researchers to address some major concerns, such as: Spread of infectious diseases (via

birds, bats, rodents or insects) Relationship between biological diversity and ecosystem functioning Follow and predict bird presence, to enhance aviation safety Migration routes and patterns WUSAT’s latest CubeSat satellite - designed to be launched from the International Space Station (ISS) - aims to work in collaboration with the ICARUS system. GPS, 3D acceleration and other data collected in black- box-loggers on individual animals is transmitted in small data packages to these Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites where it is decoded and downlinked to a ground station. WUSAT, working in conjunction with world-renowned electronics engineering consultancy, Roke Manor Research, is one of the partners developing the LEO Cubesat. Warwick University’s WUSAT team has been established for ten years and since 2012 it has been developing its own

34 l New-Tech Magazine Europe