5th International Radar Aeroecology Conference & Training workshop
June 24-26, 2026 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The 5th International Radar Aeroecology Conference (IRAC 2026) will be held in Amsterdam on June 24-26, 2026. The conference will cover the latest international developments relevant to the use of different types of radars to monitor and understand flying animals. An optional two-day training workshop will take place before the conference on 22-23 June, covering the use of weather radar for applications in aeroecology.
All conference updates will be communicated via the Radar Aeroecology mailing list. Please sign up to get notifications. Contact us if you cannot sign up to Google Groups.
The conference is hosted by the University of Amsterdam:
We thank the following organizations for providing financial support:
Registration
Due to overwhelming interest we have reached full capacity for the rooms reserved. Registration for in-person participation is therefore closed. Registration for online participation in the form of a live stream is still possible, until June 21, 2026.
Register for online participation
If you would like to be placed on the waiting list for in-person participation, please send an email to irac2026@uva.nl.
Venue, travel and accommodation
See logistics for practical information on the venue, accommodation, travel, getting around, and things to see and do in Amsterdam.
Programme
Times are indicated in local times for Amsterdam, Netherlands (CEST, UTC+02:00). See the current time in Amsterdam.
Monday, June 22
| 09:00-17:00 | Training workshop (optional) |
Tuesday, June 23
| 09:00-17:00 | Training workshop (continued) (optional) |
Wednesday, June 24
There is a general public transport strike expected on this day until 8:00 am. Expect delays and fewer trains and busses.
| 8:30-9:15 | Registration |
| 9:15-9:30 | Welcome |
Session 1 - Migration ecology of birds
Session chair: Maja Bradarić
| 09:30-10:00 | Carrie Ann Adams - The effects of artificial light at night on birds: insights from radar aeroecology keynote |
| 10:00-10:15 | Hwayeon Kang - Long-term phenology shifts and barrier-driven weather selective departure decisions in nocturnal bird migration over South Korea |
| 10:15-10:30 | Korin Reznikov - Characterizing soaring-bird migration in Israel using radars |
| 10:30-10:45 | Siméon Béasse - Annual intercontinental dynamics of passerine migration across the Strait of Gibraltar |
| 10:45-11:15 | Coffee break |
Session 2 - Methodological advances
Session chair: Yuting Deng
| 11:15-11:30 | Raphaël Nussbaumer - Three-dimensional reconstruction of bird density using inverse weather radar modeling |
| 11:30-11:45 | V. Alistair Drake - What can and cannot be inferred from single- and multiple-point observations of ‘migration in progress’? |
| 11:45-12:00 | Johannes Nüesch - Physics-based simulation and inference of flapping-wing kinematics from FMCW micro-doppler radar |
| 12:00-12:05 | Adriaan Dokter - Inverse estimation of vertical profiles in bioRad speed talk |
| 12:05-12:10 | Gonzalo Munoz Arroyo - Preliminary assessment of the Detect Merlin True 3D radar to monitor bird migration across the Strait of Gibraltar. speed talk |
| 12:10-12:15 | Emiel van Loon - Predicting bird tracks with the help of nearby antecedent tracks speed talk |
| 12:15-12:20 | Nadja Weisshaupt - Radial velocity-induced biases in aeroecological products derived from C-band weather radar data speed talk |
| 12:20-12:25 | Andrés De la Cruz - How radar distance influences detectability and migration traffic rates: an experiment using a Detect Merlin True 3D radar at the Strait of Gibraltar speed talk |
| 12:25-12:30 | Graciela de Cuba - Predicting bird trajectories using avian radar data and deep learning models to improve wildlife strike prevention speed talk |
| 12:30-14:00 | Lunch break |
Session 3 - Observing insects at scale
Session chair: Øyvind Nyheim
| 14:00-14:15 | Anjita Neelatt Anilkumar - Advancing Desert Locust Surveillance Through Doppler Weather Radar Observations |
| 14:15-14:30 | Ryan R. Neely III - Seeing insects at scale: Weather radar insights from the UK & India |
| 14:30-14:45 | Xu Shi - Preliminary patterns of insect and bird migration observed by the Chinese weather radar network |
| 14:45-15:30 | Poster session |
| Birgen Haest - Quantifying intercontinental migratory insect flows across the Strait of Gibraltar | |
| Peter Coggan - Identifying potential ecological traps for migratory insects along the West Coast of North America | |
| Leonard De Causmaecker - Compact entomological lidars for comparative seasonal surveillance of free flying insects over ground | |
| Jeffrey Kelly - Biological potential of KaRVIR; Ka-band Rapid-scan Volumetric Imaging Radars | |
| Bart Kranstauber - Using the new getRad R package to process open weather radar data in an operational pipeline | |
| Mason Maron - Integrating localized flight call detections and radar-derived trajectories to study nocturnal avian migration | |
| Kseniia Kravchenko - Species-level bat identification from radar using micro-doppler and acoustic ground-truthing | |
| Yuval Werber - Synoptic state alters flock migration patterns through a bottleneck in the Levant | |
| Maarten Reyniers - Radar detection of avian responses to sonic booms | |
| Jacco Leemans - Detecting songbird flocks with a tracking radar | |
| David Troupin - Testing hypotheses regarding the composition of bird migration in the Levant | |
| Paraskevi Nousi - Insect identification in weather radar data | |
| Vincent Delcourt - Simultaneous offshore and inshore radar recordings bring new insights into bird migration at the Gulf of Lions scale | |
| Hidde Leijnse - An operational system for real-time bird migration monitoring and forecasting for military aviation | |
| Jeff Follett - Operational use of avian radar to identify, predict, and respond to flocking waterfowl hazards | |
| Felix Liechti - Large-scale synchrony of the autumn bird migration in Baden-Württemberg, Germany | |
| Ruben van Oosterhoudt - Daily patterns of offshore flight activity in the breeding season seem unrelated to distance to shore | |
| 15:30-16:00 | Coffee break |
Session 4 - Migration ecology of birds (cont.)
Session chair: Yuval Werber
| 16:00-16:15 | Shannon Curley - Analysis of aerofauna movement using Canadian S-band weather radar |
| 16:15-16:30 | Fengyi Guo - Long-term trends in migratory landbird stopover distribution following 13 years of changes in the contiguous United States |
| 16:30-16:45 | Bart Hoekstra - Simulation-informed migration forecasting to improve and understand predictions of rare migration peaks |
| 16:45-17:00 | Carolyn Burt - What goes up must come down: Using weather surveillance radar data to forecast migratory birds banded on the ground |
| 17:00-17:05 | Virginia Halterman - A local and regional spatial analysis of bird stopover distributions in the Great Lakes basin speed talk |
| 17:05-17:10 | Yuting Deng - Novel estimates of nocturnal bird migration traffic at the continental scale using participatory science data speed talk |
| 17:10-17:15 | Daniel Bloche - Using corresponding radar and ringing data to explore migratory decisions of songbirds speed talk |
| 17:15-17:20 | Maja Bradarić - Regional synchrony and directional coherence in offshore nocturnal bird migration speed talk |
| 17:20-17:25 | Baptiste Schmid - Effects of low-light levels on nocturnal migratory birds in flight speed talk |
| 17:25-17:30 | Clara Tattoni - Towards a quantitative criterion for Italian alpine bird migration corridors speed talk |
🍻 Welcome drinks
17:30 at Eetcafe Oerknal (Science Park 306, 1098 XH Amsterdam).
Thursday, June 25
Session 5 - Insect migration
Session chair: Boya Gao
| 09:00-09:30 | Nir Sapir - Active navigation and meteorological selectivity drive insect migration patterns through the Levant keynote |
| 09:30-09:45 | Shannon Mason - Serendipitous detections from EarthCARE Cloud Profiling Radar provide first global climatologies of flying insects |
| 09:45-10:00 | Elske Tielens - Large scale insect migration: the role of seasonal and latitudinal pressures |
| 10:00-10:15 | Heike Kalesse-Los - Detecting trends in flying insects from long-term cloud radar observations |
| 10:15-10:30 | Xiaodan Wang - Insect biomass plays an important role in seasonal migration intensity of passerines in Europe |
| 10:30-11:00 | Coffee break |
Session 6 - Radar applications in wind energy
Session chair: Fengyi Guo
| 11:00-11:15 | Jente Kraal - Radar-controlled Shutdown on Demand to minimize collisions of migrating birds in a coastal wind farm |
| 11:15-11:30 | Erik Fritz - Bird migration over the North Sea: Integrating radar and camera data to assess avian interactions with offshore wind farms |
| 11:30-11:45 | Øyvind Nyheim - Mapping bird migration in space and time to support sustainable wind energy development in Norway |
| 11:45-12:00 | Bart Kranstauber - Directional patterns of nocturnal bird migration over the Netherlands: Insights from combining bird radars |
| 12:00-12:05 | Joep Breuer - Integrated monitoring of avian behaviour around wind turbines: Insights from the Zwarte Wiek and ZWEMT projects speed talk |
| 12:05-12:10 | Vincent Delcourt - Cross the sea or follow the coast ? Results from 3 years of data along the Gulf of Lion, French Mediterranean Sea speed talk |
| 12:10-12:15 | Sam Ordeman - Simulating bird flight through offshore wind farms: An agent-based modelling approach speed talk |
| 12:15-12:20 | Yohan Sassi - Crossings and altitudes used by migratory birds around the Baltic Sea speed talk |
| 12:20-12:25 | Greg Mitchell - Estimating relative collision risk for migratory birds with wind turbines along the St. Lawrence River, Quebec, Canada speed talk |
| 12:25-12:30 | Nienke Kwant-Heida - Measuring flight behaviour of cormorants with a dedicated 3D bird radar in a nearshore wind farm, with the use of machine learning speed talk |
| 12:30-14:00 | Lunch break |
Session 7 - Applications in radar aeroecology
Session chair: Bart Hoekstra
| 14:00-14:30 | Jeffrey Buler - WaterFowl Alert Network: Predicting waterfowl distributions within major flyways of the USA from models trained on weather surveillance radar data keynote |
| 14:30-14:45 | Reuben O’Connell-Booth - No effect of agri-environment schemes on radar-measured aerial insect abundance at landscape scale in England |
| 14:45-15:00 | Hans van Gasteren - Simulation hits reality: How simulated wildlife strikes correspond to collisions observed at an air base |
| 15:00-15:15 | Benjamin Van Doren - Integrating BirdFlow into BirdCast migration alerts: Towards species-specific risk |
| 15:15-15:30 | Judy Shamoun-Baranes - Pathways to impact through long-term collaboration and serendipity |
| 15:30-16:00 | Coffee break |
| 16:00-17:00 | Stakeholder panel discussionWe will discuss the challenges different users are facing when using or interested in using radars to monitor aerial movement of animals. That understanding could lead to new developments in the future. This will be an open dialogue, led by Judy Shamoun-Baranes, Silke Bauer and Isabel Metz with the following panel members:
|
🍴 Conference dinner
18:00 at Restaurant Elixer (Batjanstraat 1a, 1094 RC Amsterdam).
For transport you can either walk for about 20 minutes or take bus 40 (every 10 minutes) in the direction of station Muiderpoort and exit at the Valentijnkade bus stop.
Friday, June 26
Session 8 - Movement ecology of bats and insects
Session chair: Ksenia Kravchenko
| 09:00-09:30 | Silvia Giuntini - Assessing migratory bat movements across seasons and years in Central Europe using vertical-looking radar and acoustic monitoring keynote |
| 09:30-09:45 | Yuval Werber - Millions of bats migrate along two continental flyways in Europe and the Middle East |
| 09:45-10:00 | Trish Fleming - Quantifying bat flight heights |
| 10:00-10:15 | Jian Ma - The mechanisms of field flight behaviors in nocturnal insects in the Southern North China Plain, China |
| 10:15-10:20 | Jianrong Huang - Progress of China’s Vertical Looking insect Radar Network speed talk |
| 10:20-10:25 | Paraskevi Nousi - Biological classification of vertical-looking radar data using convolutional neural networks speed talk |
| 10:25-10:30 | Anastasia Lavrenko - Novel harmonic radar tools for tracking flying insects speed talk |
| 10:30-11:00 | Coffee break |
Session 9 - Monitoring the airspace
Session chair: Yohan Sassi
| 11:00-11:15 | Cecilia Nilsson - Animal niches in the airspace |
| 11:15-11:30 | Dylan Osterhaus - Seeing double: Concurrent dual-frequency observations of aerial migration with CSU-CHILL |
| 11:15-11:45 | Tommy Matthews - Taxonomic resolution in dual-polarisation weather radar observations of biological scatterers: a simulation-grounded exploration |
| 11:45-12:00 | Luca Pegoraro - Aerial insect activity differs across land-use types and declines with insecticide intensity |
| 12:00-12:15 | Boya Gao - Is southward return migration viable? Resolving the mystery of autumnal insect migrations from Northeast China |
| 12:15-12:30 | Closing remarks |
📡 Radar demonstration
13:30-15:00 on Parking 7 (Science Park, 1098 XH Amsterdam).
What can radar reveal about bird movements around future wind farms? Join us outside for a live demonstration of the Robin Radar MAX system and see real-time avian tracking in action. Robin Radar experts will guide attendees through the radar’s capabilities, demonstrate the data it provides, and discuss how it can be used to support both wind energy and bird conservation.
Saturday, June 27
🔭 Excursion to De Groene Jonker
08:00-13:00
Round off the conference with a morning in the field at De Groene Jonker, a classic Dutch wetland of reeds, open water, and wet grasslands just south of Amsterdam, and a wonderful spot for wetland birds and insects (see recent observations). We will go for a 2-hour walk on flat terrain and the tour will be guided by Hans van Gasteren and supported by other local colleagues. A small bus leaves Amstel Station (precise location t.b.d.) at 8:00 and returns around 13:00. Please bring your own food, drinks and binoculars; the organisers will bring a spotting scope to share.
Places are limited to 30 participants and allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. To help cover transport, we ask for a contribution of €25 (payment by invoice is not possible). To join, edit your registration and complete the payment. Your place is guaranteed once payment is received.
Training workshop
The pre-conference workshop will be a two-day long immersive training in the use of weather surveillance radar data for applications in aeroecology. We will cover the basics of radar remote sensing, data visualization, and data processing. Early-career professionals, practitioners, and students are encouraged to participate.
For inquiries about the workshop, please contact Kyle Horton.
Abstracts
Abstracts of talks and posters.
Contact
Please contact us irac2026@uva.nl with any questions that you may have regarding the conference, incl. your abstract submission, (informal) events you might want to organize (e.g. round-table discussions), etc.
Scientific committee: Bart Kranstauber, Birgen Haest, Isabel Metz, Nadja Weisshaupt and Jeff Kelly.
Organizing committee: Judy Shamoun-Baranes, Elske Tielens, Peter Desmet, Cecilia Nilsson and Bart Hoekstra.
Training workshop coordinator: Kyle Horton
Code of conduct
Our conference is dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks, workshops, parties, Twitter and other online media. Conference participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the conference without a refund at the discretion of the conference organizers.
If you are being harassed or witnessed something inappropriate, would like to file a complaint, or have other concerns about the safety of participants, please do not hesitate to contact us at irac2026@uva.nl or anyone from the organizing committee.