Friday, August 12, 2016
Scientists Supported by Simons Foundation Determine How Birds Soar to Great Heights
Migratory birds often use warm, rising atmospheric currents to gain height with little energy expenditure when flying over long distances.
It’s a behavior known as thermal soaring that requires complex decision-making within the turbulent environment of a rising column of warm air from the sun baked surface of the earth.
But exactly how birds navigate within this ever-changing environment to optimize their thermal soaring was unknown until a team of physicists and biologists at the University of California San Diego took an exacting computational look at the problem...