Doppler weather radars as a game changer in desert locust swarm tracking.

ABSTRACT: Desert locusts, notorious for their ruinous impact on agriculture, threaten over 20% of Earth's landmass, prompting billions in losses and global food scarcity concerns. With billions of these locusts invading agrarian lands, this is no longer a thing of the past. Recent invasions, such as those in India, where losses reached US$ 3 billion in 2019-20 alone, underscore the urgency of action. By tapping into the existing Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) infrastructure, originally deployed for meteorological applications, the present study demonstrates a systematic approach to distinctly identify and track concentrations of desert locust swarms in near real-time using single and dual-polarization radars. Findings reveal the potential to establish early warning systems with lead times of 5-7 h and

SUBMITTER: Anjita NA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11685443 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature