Volcano risk? Ask the birds: Astronauts to install tracker on International Space Station to monitor mass migrations that could give warning of natural disasters
- Animals are known to sense tectonic activity well before major seismic shifts
- Astronauts plan to install a dedicated wildlife receiver to the International Space Station
- It will chart the movement of animals including birds, bees and butterflies
- Device could help give an extra five hours warning of an impending disaster
By Ben Spencer
PUBLISHED: 19 January 2014
Tiny birds, bees and butterflies are to be tracked from space from next year to give us advance warnings of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
Astronauts are planning to install a dedicated wildlife receiver to the International Space Station, which will continuously track the course of thousands of small animals.
New technology means radio transmitters are getting smaller and smaller, meaning even insects could soon carry one.
Animals are known to sense tectonic activity well before major seismic shifts - an ability which could be used to give us prior warning for natural disasters.
Tracking the mass migration of birds and other animals could help warn of natural disasters as they are known to sense tectonic activity well before seismic shifts
Uschi Müller, co-ordinator of the £33million Icarus project, said birds and animals living near disaster-prone zones could be fitted with the devices.
'It could give people an extra five hours warning of a disaster,' she said.
The devices could also help track and predict the spreads of animal-borne diseases such as Sars, bird flu and West Nile Virus.
Some 70 per cent of worldwide epidemics result from animal-human contact, but without long-distance tracking it is hard to predict where they will spread.
The Icarus scheme, a joint project run by the German and Russian space agencies and 12 scientific groups, will start by putting transmitters on small birds but hopes to be tracking insects within a few years.
Uschi Müller told the Observer: 'To start with, Icarus scientists will use 5g transmitters but in the future we will use much smaller ones, under 1g, which will allow us to follow insects.
'It will be used for conservation, health and disaster forecasting.' At the moment only large animals which have long-range migration patterns are tracked, mainly because of the technological challenges of following animals over many miles.
Scientists behind the project say only a satellite-based system can provide a solution to the problem.
It could help give up to five hours extra warning of volcanic eruptions, such as Mount Sinabung's earlier this month in Karo district, Indonesia's North Sumatra province
The Icarus receiver will circle on the space station 200 miles above Earth - a relatively low orbit - allowing even bats and bugs to be tracked.
Scientists are not sure why animals are able to sense tectonic shifts well before humans or even, in some cases, before seismic monitoring equipment.
Colonies of birds, insects, frogs and snakes are reported to have abandoned their habitats hours or even days before a earthquake has struck.
One theory is that animals that live in or near groundwater are highly sensitive to any changes in its chemistry, so they might sense subtle alterations caused by chemical changes underground well before tectonic movements.
Another explanation is that they are just highly sensitive to vibrations. The Icarus project will also be highly valuable to conservationists.
Graham Madge of the RSPB said little is known about the routes migratory birds such as nightingales and spotter fly-catchers take.
He said: 'Understanding the routes they take can help us preserve them and prevent higher than normal rates of infection among wildlife populations.
'We still don't know where they go and many are only here for a few months. Without knowing exactly where they go and when we cannot understand how to conserve them.'
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