Observations and models of across-wind flight speed of the wandering albatross
Wandering albatrosses exploit wind shear by dynamic soaring (DS), enabling rapid, efficient, long-range flight. We compared the ability of a theoretical nonlinear DS model and a linear empirical model to explain the observed variation of mean across-wind airspeeds of GPS-tracked wandering albatrosse...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:9709578 2023-05-15T18:43:03+02:00 Observations and models of across-wind flight speed of the wandering albatross Richardson, Philip L. Wakefield, Ewan D. 2022-11-30 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9709578/ https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211364 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9709578/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211364 © 2022 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY R Soc Open Sci Physics and Biophysics Text 2022 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211364 2022-12-04T02:13:15Z Wandering albatrosses exploit wind shear by dynamic soaring (DS), enabling rapid, efficient, long-range flight. We compared the ability of a theoretical nonlinear DS model and a linear empirical model to explain the observed variation of mean across-wind airspeeds of GPS-tracked wandering albatrosses. Assuming a flight trajectory of linked, 137° turns, a DS cycle of 10 s and a cruise airspeed of 16 m s(−1), the theoretical model predicted that the minimum wind speed necessary to support DS is greater than 3 m s(−1). Despite this, tracked albatrosses were observed in flight at wind speeds as low as 2 m s(−1). We hypothesize at these very low wind speeds, wandering albatrosses fly by obtaining additional energy from updrafts over water waves. In fast winds (greater than 8 m s(−1)), assuming the same 10 s cycle period and a turn angle (TA) of 90°, the DS model predicts mean across-wind airspeeds of up to around 50 m s(−1). In contrast, the maximum observed across-wind mean airspeed of our tracked albatrosses reached an asymptote at approximately 20 m s(−1). We hypothesize that this is due to birds actively limiting airspeed by making fine-scale adjustments to TAs and soaring heights in order to limit aerodynamic force on their wings. Text Wandering Albatross PubMed Central (PMC) Royal Society Open Science 9 11 |
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Physics and Biophysics |
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Physics and Biophysics Richardson, Philip L. Wakefield, Ewan D. Observations and models of across-wind flight speed of the wandering albatross |
topic_facet |
Physics and Biophysics |
description |
Wandering albatrosses exploit wind shear by dynamic soaring (DS), enabling rapid, efficient, long-range flight. We compared the ability of a theoretical nonlinear DS model and a linear empirical model to explain the observed variation of mean across-wind airspeeds of GPS-tracked wandering albatrosses. Assuming a flight trajectory of linked, 137° turns, a DS cycle of 10 s and a cruise airspeed of 16 m s(−1), the theoretical model predicted that the minimum wind speed necessary to support DS is greater than 3 m s(−1). Despite this, tracked albatrosses were observed in flight at wind speeds as low as 2 m s(−1). We hypothesize at these very low wind speeds, wandering albatrosses fly by obtaining additional energy from updrafts over water waves. In fast winds (greater than 8 m s(−1)), assuming the same 10 s cycle period and a turn angle (TA) of 90°, the DS model predicts mean across-wind airspeeds of up to around 50 m s(−1). In contrast, the maximum observed across-wind mean airspeed of our tracked albatrosses reached an asymptote at approximately 20 m s(−1). We hypothesize that this is due to birds actively limiting airspeed by making fine-scale adjustments to TAs and soaring heights in order to limit aerodynamic force on their wings. |
format |
Text |
author |
Richardson, Philip L. Wakefield, Ewan D. |
author_facet |
Richardson, Philip L. Wakefield, Ewan D. |
author_sort |
Richardson, Philip L. |
title |
Observations and models of across-wind flight speed of the wandering albatross |
title_short |
Observations and models of across-wind flight speed of the wandering albatross |
title_full |
Observations and models of across-wind flight speed of the wandering albatross |
title_fullStr |
Observations and models of across-wind flight speed of the wandering albatross |
title_full_unstemmed |
Observations and models of across-wind flight speed of the wandering albatross |
title_sort |
observations and models of across-wind flight speed of the wandering albatross |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9709578/ https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211364 |
genre |
Wandering Albatross |
genre_facet |
Wandering Albatross |
op_source |
R Soc Open Sci |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9709578/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211364 |
op_rights |
© 2022 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211364 |
container_title |
Royal Society Open Science |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
11 |
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1766232833785856000 |