Great frigatebirds live in tropical regions and routinely fly to 2,000 m (1.25 mi.) in altitude, occasionally reaching heights of 4,000 m (2.5 mi.). A new study shows that great frigatebirds equipped with tiny sensors can give detailed information about the planetary boundary layer (PBL), which is the dynamic atmospheric layer that is closest to Earth and where we experience weather, air quality, and climate impacts.

The PBL connects the atmosphere with the surface ocean, land and ice. It rises and falls throughout the day and “many weather and climate processes are related to that fluctuation,” said Ian Brosnan, a marine scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center who led the work. “So understanding PBL dynamics is fundamental to answering a lot of questions about the Earth system.”

Current techniques typically rely on ground-based measurements or remote sensing, but for far-flung regions over the oceans, “getting in-situ samples of any sort at scale is a challenge,” Brosnan said.

“These novel approaches to using animal tracking data can help NASA measure the planetary boundary layer and improve climate predictions and weather and air quality forecasts,” Brosnan said.

He mentioned that after hearing from interagency scientists about how important global, satellite-based animal tracking data are for their research projects, NASA created the “Internet of Animals” project. This allows scientists to integrate data from remote sensing measurements with data from sensors on animals, now including the great frigatebird PBL data.

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