Progress against the Wind with Dynamic Soaring - Results from In-Flight Measurements of Albatrosses

摘要

Results from in-flight measurements of dynamic soaring in wandering albatrosses are presented. The experimental results were obtained using a new computational method based on LI phase measurement as well as miniaturized and low cost GPS logging devices featuring a sufficiently high data sampling rate. Thus, it was possible to determine precisely the flight path and the motion quantities of the birds. Wind information was obtained using SeaWinds on QuikSCAT Level 3 Daily, Gridded Ocean Wind Vectors (JPL SeaWinds Project). The presented results show how albatrosses manage to make progress against the wind in non-flapping flight by means of dynamic soaring.