Simulating geomagnetic bird navigation using novel high-resolution geomagnetic data

Spatial-temporal interpolation of satellite geomagnetic data to study long-distance animal migration

“…These values however will not accurately represent the instantaneous and local variability of the geomagnetic field as may be experienced by migratory animals. Incorporating satellite data at satellite altitude will capture some of this variability, and such local variations, especially during geomagnetic storms, are likely to impact orientation by animals using the geomagnetic field (Alerstam, 1987;Benitez-Paez et al, 2021;Schiffner et al, 2011;Wynn et al, 2022;Zein et al, 2022). Further work will be necessary to compare error and accuracy of different models with the MagGeo framework.…”

“…The overall global correlation between MagGeo outputs and observatory values however, is very high suggesting that MagGeo could be used to study long-distance animal migration which happens on a global scale. Based on these considerations, the algorithm from MagGeo that we implement provides a highly useful and robust framework for attaching geomagnetic data to animal tracking data (Zein et al, 2022).…”

“…There are even fewer experiments that have explored how wild migrants respond to the geomagnetic field during the actual migration and what strategies they use for orientation and positioning. To understand what happens outside of controlled laboratory settings, there has been a push to test geomagnetic strategies from a data-driven, geospatial perspective by taking advantage of open-source geomagnetic models and satellite data (Zein et al, 2021(Zein et al, , 2022.…”

“…Zein et al (2021) used IGRF-12 to combine migratory bird tracks with model estimates to test different geomagnetic navigation strategies. Studies concluded that a geomagnetic compass mechanism is possible though further exploration about an animal's response to actual geomagnetic conditions during migration was restricted due to data limitations (Zein et al, 2022).…”