Wave-slope soaring of the brown pelican
Abstract
From the laboratory at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, it is common to see the brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) traveling along the crests of ocean waves just offshore of the surf-zone. When flying in this manner, the birds can travel long distances without flapping, centimeters above the ocean’s surface. Here we derive a theoretical framework for assessing the energetic savings related to this behavior, ‘wave-slope soaring,’ in which an organism in flight takes advantage of localized updrafts caused by traveling ocean surface gravity waves.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Mar 22, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1186/s40462-021-00247-9
Entities
People
- Andrew J. Lucas
- Ian Stokes
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research