Micro-Doppler measurement of insect wing-beat frequencies with W-band coherent radar

Abstract

Abstract The wingbeat frequency of insect migrant is regarded potentially valuable for species identification and has long drawn widespread attention in radar entomology. Principally, the radar echo signal can be used to extract wingbeat information, because both the signal amplitude and phase could be modulated by wing-beating. With respect to existing entomological radars, signal amplitude modulation has been used for wingbeat frequency measurement of large insects for many years, but the wingbeat frequency measurement of small insects remains a challenge. In our research, W-band and S-band coherent radars are used to measure the insect wingbeat frequency. The results show that the wingbeat-induced amplitude modulation of W-band radar is more intense than that of the S-band radar and the W-band radar could measure the wingbeat frequency of smaller insects. In addition, it is validated for the first time that the signal phase could also be used to measure the insect wingbeat frequency based on micro-Doppler effect. However, whether the wingbeat frequency measurement is based on the amplitude or phase modulation, it is found that the W-band coherent radar has better performance on both the measurement precision and the measurable minimum size of the insect.