radR: an open-source platform for acquiring and analysing data on biological targets observed by surveillance radar

BMC Ecology

Software

Carolyn Matkovich¹  Philip D Taylor¹  Michael L Peckford¹  John M Brzustowski²  Dave Wilson³ 

[1] Department of Biology, Acadia University, Wolfville, Canada;Department of Biology, Acadia University, Wolfville, Canada;Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada, Ottawa, Canada;Electro Marine Communications Inc, Oakville, Canada;

关键词: Near Neighbour;    Radar Data;    Radar Signal;    Target Velocity;    Range Cell;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6785-10-22

 received in 2009-11-10, accepted in 2010-10-26,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundRadar has been used for decades to study movement of insects, birds and bats. In spite of this, there are few readily available software tools for the acquisition, storage and processing of such data. Program radR was developed to solve this problem.ResultsProgram radR is an open source software tool for the acquisition, storage and analysis of data from marine radars operating in surveillance mode. radR takes time series data with a two-dimensional spatial component as input from some source (typically a radar digitizing card) and extracts and retains information of biological relevance (i.e. moving targets). Low-level data processing is implemented in "C" code, but user-defined functions written in the "R" statistical programming language can be called at pre-defined steps in the calculations. Output data formats are designed to allow for future inclusion of additional data items without requiring change to C code. Two brands of radar digitizing card are currently supported as data sources. We also provide an overview of the basic considerations of setting up and running a biological radar study.ConclusionsProgram radR provides a convenient, open source platform for the acquisition and analysis of radar data of biological targets.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Taylor et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010