Harmonic Radar Systems for Insect Tracking

通过使用谐波雷达跟踪昆虫是一个具有挑战性的工程问题，产生以前无法获得的昆虫行为信息。人们迫切需要了解昆虫，一方面是为了提高粮食产量，另一方面是为了应对气候变化带来的入侵物种。蜜蜂的蜂群衰竭失调是推动这项工作的一个非常熟悉的危机。加拿大将从追踪玉米根虫、科罗拉多马铃薯甲虫和蜜蜂中受益，保护我们的农业，同时培养高技能的无线电工程师。对哺乳动物和鸟类的无线电跟踪是司空见惯的，它提供了大量关于它们活动的信息。昆虫通常不能携带传统的无线电发射器，因此需要一种替代的跟踪手段。这就是谐波雷达发挥重要作用的地方，它将无线电系统的复杂性和质量转移到人类操作员的一端，而在另一端（昆虫）留下最简单和最低质量的无线电标签。

Insect tracking through the use of harmonic radar is a challenging engineering problem yielding previously unavailable behavioral information from insects. The urgency in understanding insects is driven by the need for greater food production while at the same time coping with invasive species enabled by climate change. Colony collapse disorder in honeybees is one very familiar crisis driving this work. Canada will benefit from tracking of the corn rootworm, Colorado potato beetle, and honeybee by protecting our agriculture industry while at the same time producing highly skilled radio engineers. Radio tracking of mammals and birds is commonplace providing a wealth of information on their movements. Insects are generally not capable of carrying conventional radio transmitters and thus an alternative tracking means is required. This is where harmonic radar plays an important role by moving the complexity and mass of the radio system to the human operator end leaving the simplest and lowest mass radio tag at the other, insect, end.