Separate Echo Research Articles

Echolocating Bats Have Evolved Decreased Susceptibility to Noise-Induced Temporary Hearing Losses.

Glenis Long championed the application of quantitative psychophysical methods to understand comparative hearing abilities across species. She contributed the first psychophysical studies of absolute and masked hearing sensitivities in an auditory specialist, the echolocating horseshoe bat. Her data demonstrated that this bat has hyperacute frequency discrimination in the 83-kHz range of its echolocation broadcast. This specialization facilitates the bat's use of Doppler shift compensation to separate echoes of fluttering insects from concurrent echoes of non-moving objects. In this review, we discuss another specialization for hearing in a species of echolocating bat that contributes to perception of echoes within a complex auditory scene. Psychophysical and behavioral studies with big brown bats show that exposures to long duration, intense wideband or narrowband ultrasonic noise do not induce significant increases in their thresholds to echoes and do not impair their ability to orient through a naturalistic sonar scene containing multiple distracting echoes. Thresholds of auditory brainstem responses also remain low after intense noise exposures. These data indicate that big brown bats are not susceptible to temporary threshold shifts as measured in comparable paradigms used with other mammals, at least within the range of stimulus parameters that have been tested so far. We hypothesize that echolocating bats have evolved a decreased susceptibility to noise-induced hearing losses as a specialization for echolocation in noisy environments.

Three-dimensional imaging of ships in the foggy environment using a single-photon detector array

When using single-photon detector array lidar to detect ships in a foggy environment, the multiple scattering between laser and sea fog, sea surface and ships leads to a large number of fake images in the reconstructed depth images, which seriously limits the ability to detect and recognize ships. Here, we propose a three-dimensional imaging algorithm suitable for ships in fog with a single-photon detector array lidar. This algorithm can eliminate fake images caused by multiple reflections of the sea surface in a foggy environment. Firstly, the algorithm uses a dual-Gamma estimation algorithm to eliminate the influence of non-signal photons, and uses a pulse-like selection algorithm to accurately extract the target echo waveform. Secondly, based on the characteristics of the target echo, the principal component analysis (PCA) and K-means algorithm are used to cluster the features of the separated echo signals. Finally, the result of feature classification is used to achieve efficient fake images removal. We show that the proposed algorithm can more accurately reconstruct the depth image of a ship with a distance of 1.72 km in fog environment. Compared with the traditional algorithms, the proposed algorithm can suppress the sea surface reflection while retaining the most target contour. It has been successfully demonstrated for small ships at different distances. This research is expected to improve the detection and recognition ability of single-photon detector array lidar for small targets in complex scenes.

An Advanced Echo Separation Scheme for Space-Time Waveform-Encoding SAR Based on Digital Beamforming and Blind Source Separation

To achieve high-resolution and wide-swath (HRWS) imaging, a space-time waveform-encoding (STWE) spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system is adopted. In rugged terrain, the beam-pointing mismatch problem will appear when the traditional digital beamforming (DBF) technique is used to separate the received echoes. This problem leads to decreasing the received echo’s gain, deteriorating the quality of the image product and making the interpretation of SAR image difficult. To address this problem, an advanced echo separation scheme for STWE spaceborne SAR based on the DBF and blind source separation (BSS) is put forward in this paper. In the scheme, the echoes are transmitted within the adjacent pulse repetition intervals to simulate multiple beams, and the scattered echoes are received by the sixteen-channel antennas in elevation simultaneously. In post-processing, a detailed flow is adopted. In the method, the DBF is firstly performed on received echoes. Due to the error caused by terrain undulation, the degree of echo separation is not enough. Then, the BSS is performed on the multiple echoes obtained after the DBF processing. Finally, the highly separated echo signal can be obtained. In this scheme, there is no need to perform the direction of arrival (DOA) estimation before the DBF processing, which saves valuable computing resources. In addition, to verify the proposed scheme, point target and distributed target simulations based on the 16-channel data of an elevation X-band DBF-SAR system are carried out. The results of point targets indicate that the residual echo caused by rough terrain can be reduced by more than 14 dB using the proposed scheme. The proposed scheme can be directly implemented into existing SAR systems; thus, it does not increase the complexity of the system design. The scheme has the potential to be applied to future spaceborne SAR missions.

Intravascular ultrasound correlation of unenhanced magnetic resonance venography in the context of pelvic deep venous disease

ObjectiveIn the present retrospective, assessor-blinded cross-sectional study, we compared the diagnostic efficacy of the relaxation-enhanced angiography without contrast and triggering (REACT) protocol for magnetic resonance venography (MRV) and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). MethodsAll patients without prior lower limb vascular stenting who had undergone MRV with the REACT protocol and IVUS at our institution from January 2018 to May 2020 were included. The REACT protocol for MRV comprises three main phases: the adiabatic-based T2-preparation module, the non–volume-selective short tau inversion recovery pulse sequence, and the three-dimensional, modified two-point chemical-shift water-fat separated turbo-field echo pulse sequence. The IVUS findings served as the reference standard for stenosis and were used in the diagnostic efficacy analysis of the REACT protocol for MRV. The REACT protocol MRV images were reviewed by three board-certified interventional radiologists, and an interrater analysis was performed. ResultsA total of 33 patients (110 segments with IVUS correlation; 18 men [54.5%] and 15 women [45.5%]) were included. Most patients were Chinese (63.6%), and 24 had had bilateral deep venous disease (72.7%). The mean patient age was 59.0 years (range, 26.0-79.5 years). Moderate agreement was found between the three radiologists’ diagnoses of iliac vein pathology using the REACT protocol for MRV (κ = 0.524; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.426-0.623; P < .001). Compared with IVUS, REACT protocol MRV achieved a sensitivity of 96.10% (95% CI, 89.03%-99.19%), specificity of 78.79% (95% CI, 61.09%-91.02%), positive predictive value of 91.36% (95% CI, 84.54%-95.33%), and negative predictive value of 89.66% (95% CI, 73.81%-96.38%). Overall, 78.5% agreement was noted between the REACT protocol MRV and IVUS findings. Good agreement between the index test and reference standard was noted (κ = 0.779; 95% CI, 0.645-0.907; P ≤ .05). ConclusionsREACT protocol MRV has the potential to be a highly sensitive and specific screening tool to diagnose deep venous disease.

Damage Imaging in Composite Laminates Using Broadband Multipath Lamb Waves

This paper presents a broadband multipath Lamb wave imaging method, which separates, interprets and exploits echoes and reverberations in Lamb wave response for damage detection and localization in composite structures. In that method, a typical chirp excitation is firstly applied to collect structural information over a wide frequency range, providing a large number of candidates for efficient parameter optimization. Then, the short-time chirp-Fourier transform (STCFT) is introduced to map and separate echoes in the time-frequency domain. On this basis, a frequency slice of the spectrogram is taken, where multiple echoes could be separately identified in time domain. Thirdly, a modified elliptical method is proposed to accommodate those echoes for damage imaging. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated by experimental examples conducted on carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates. Furthermore, the influence of the redundant sensing paths and the undesirable waves on the imaging results is also investigated.

A Reconfigurable MIMO-SAR Transmission Scheme Based on Inter-Pulse and Intra-Pulse Joint Phase Modulation

The echo separation issue associated with different transmit antennas is the most technical challenge in realizing the Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system. In this paper, a reconfigurable MIMO-SAR transmission scheme based on inter-pulse and intra-pulse joint phase modulation is proposed. The proposed scheme has many advantages. First, lots of monostatic waveforms can be directly employed in a MIMO-SAR system, which offers flexibility in waveform selection. Second, according to different MIMO-SAR applications, it is reconfigurable and can flexibly adjust the system Degree of Freedoms (DoFs) to accomplish echo separation, achieving the best system performance, which is the key for the multimodal operation of MIMO-SARs. Finally, due to the limited system resources in the real MIMO-SAR system, it is hard to separate echo in a single domain, and the proposed scheme jointly capitalizes DoFs of Doppler, time, and space domains to ensure the successful echo separation. In addition, detailed simulation experiments are carried out to verify the practicability and effectiveness of the newly proposed transceiver schemes.

First Demonstration of Airborne MIMO SAR System for Multimodal Operation

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems have extensively contributed to diverse scientific applications in the recent past decades. For the next generation of top-level SAR systems, the multimodal operation of wide swath imaging, sliding spotlight, and highly sensitive ground moving target indication (GMTI) is becoming increasingly crucial. Following this concept, in this article, a novel airborne multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) SAR system, along with the space-time coding (STC) waveform scheme and the phased array, is developed to realize the multimodal operation. In particular, the airborne MIMO SAR system consists of two transmitters and four receivers. The signals of the multiple modes, which overlap in the frequency domain, are interpulse modulated and transmitted by different subarrays concomitantly. The superposed echoes are separated by range-Doppler filtering. Based on the separated echoes, we can obtain eight equivalent transceiver channels and, as a result, enhance the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for airborne multimodal operation. In the future, the STC waveform scheme and flight experiments of this novel airborne MIMO SAR system will be further investigated to reduce the pulse repeat frequency (PRF) for spaceborne multimodal operation.

Ultrasonic Flaw Echo Enhancement Based on Empirical Mode Decomposition.

The detection of flaw echoes in backscattered signals in ultrasonic nondestructive testing can be challenging due to the existence of backscattering noise and electronic noise. In this article, an empirical mode decomposition (EMD) methodology is proposed for flaw echo enhancement. The backscattered signal was first decomposed into several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) using EMD or ensemble EMD (EEMD). The sample entropies (SampEn) of all IMFs were used to select the relevant modes. Otsu’s method was used for interval thresholding of the first relevant mode, and a window was used to separate the flaw echoes in the relevant modes. The flaw echo was reconstructed by adding the residue and the separated flaw echoes. The established methodology was successfully employed for simulated signal and experimental signal processing. For the simulated signals, an improvement of 9.42 dB in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and an improvement of 0.0099 in the modified correlation coefficient (MCC) were achieved. For experimental signals obtained from two cracks at different depths, the flaw echoes were also significantly enhanced.

Combined 5-minute double-echo in steady-state with separated echoes and 2-minute proton-density-weighted 2D FSE sequence for comprehensive whole-joint knee MRI assessment.

Clinical knee MRI protocols require upwards of 15 minutes of scan time. To compare the imaging appearance of knee abnormalities depicted with a 5-minute 3D double-echo in steady-state (DESS) sequence with separate echo images, with that of a routine clinical knee MRI protocol. A secondary goal was to compare the imaging appearance of knee abnormalities depicted with 5-minute DESS paired with a 2-minute coronal proton-density fat-saturated (PDFS) sequence. Prospective. Thirty-six consecutive patients (19 male) referred for a routine knee MRI. DESS and PDFS at 3T. Five musculoskeletal radiologists evaluated all images for the presence of internal knee derangement using DESS, DESS+PDFS, and the conventional imaging protocol, and their associated diagnostic confidence of the reading. Differences in positive and negative percent agreement (PPA and NPA, respectively) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for DESS and DESS+PDFS compared with the conventional protocol were calculated and tested using exact McNemar tests. The percentage of observations where DESS or DESS+PDFS had equivalent confidence ratings to DESS+Conv were tested with exact symmetry tests. Interreader agreement was calculated using Krippendorff's alpha. DESS had a PPA of 90% (88-92% CI) and NPA of 99% (99-99% CI). DESS+PDFS had increased PPA of 99% (95-99% CI) and NPA of 100% (99-100% CI) compared with DESS (both P < 0.001). DESS had equivalent diagnostic confidence to DESS+Conv in 94% of findings, whereas DESS+PDFS had equivalent diagnostic confidence in 99% of findings (both P < 0.001). All readers had moderate concordance for all three protocols (Krippendorff's alpha 47-48%). Both 1) 5-minute 3D-DESS with separated echoes and 2) 5-minute 3D-DESS paired with a 2-minute coronal PDFS sequence depicted knee abnormalities similarly to a routine clinical knee MRI protocol, which may be a promising technique for abbreviated knee MRI. 2 Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018.

ISAR imaging of targets with rotating parts based on robust principal component analysis

In inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging, the radar echoes from the rotating parts on a target may contaminate the ISAR image of the main body. The performance of the autofocus algorithms may also be degraded when the interference is too strong, for the commonly used rigid-body motion assumption is not satisfied. In this study, a novel method based on the robust principal component analysis is proposed for ISAR imaging of targets with rotating parts. The low rank property of the main body returns and the sparse property of the rotating components in a certain range cell are utilised to separate them from each other. The separated echoes are then refocused to produce a high-resolution target image and estimate the rotating parameters. Experimental results with both simulated and measured data have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Spectrum Analyses and Extracting Components of Ultrasonic Echo Signals

On the basis of an analysis on ultrasonic signals collected by detecting type 6061 aluminum block and 60kg/m rail, a signal processing method is applied to separate echo signals from ultrasonic signal. Ultrasonic signals are extracted and analyzed based on the parameters such as sampling frequency, sampling time, band-pass width and so on, in the experiments. Then, on the time domain, the frequency analysis is carried out in the target frequency range from ultrasonic signal and the characteristic frequencies are obtained. Finally, the digital filter is designed to reduce noise in order to contrast and analysis. The experimental results indicate that noise signals are effectively suppressed in the ultrasonic signals and echo signals are obtained clearly.

Acoustic scattering from elastic target buried in water-sand sediment

Acoustic scattering from objects buried in water-sand sediment is the foundation of target detection and identification. It is also a research hotspot in areas of acoustic scattering while the domestic research on scattered field from buried targets is not deep. This paper deduces an approximate Green's function of acoustic scattering from targets buried in water-sand sediment, which describes clearly the whole physical process during the propagation of scattered waves. Next, on basis of geometric acoustics, the corresponding Helmholtz-Kirchhoff formula of integration is presented. Complicated integration of the full wave number spectral representation of the Green's function is avoided by employing approximate formula derived from the method of ray acoustics. As a result of neglecting the influence from lateral waves, the Helmholtz-Kirchhoff integral given applies to supercritical incidence case. The function of COMSOL Multiphysics software is expanded by writing this formula of integration into it. By means of finite-element method, numerical calculation models for two-dimensional axisymmetric targets are established on the software platform. The proposed model built in free field is verified through comparing numerical results obtained with the Rayleigh method which has been validated in previous research achievements of acoustics. The target strength of buried elastic solid sphere is calculated under different conditions in order to analyze the change regularity of buried scattered field. We provide a summary about the law of target strength of the elastic sphere varying with frequency, buried depth, and the attenuation of sand. Finally, we conduct acoustic scattering experiments in free space and shallow buried conditions and process the data with the method of isolation and identification of resonance to separate eliastic echoes from reverberation echo and specular echo. Results from the experiment of free field show that components of the scattered wave should include Rayleigh waves and whispering gallery waves. The processed data of objects buried inside layered fluid media indicate that characteristics of resonance spectra can be used to identify and detect the target effectively while echo signal is not available for identification of target. The proposed technique is verified through the comparison of data from total scattered field between experiment and theoretical prediction. This study has important guiding significance for detecting and identifying targets embedded within layered acoustic media in practical applications.

A high success rate full-waveform lidar echo decomposition method

A full-waveform Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) echo decomposition method is proposed in this paper. In this method, the peak points are used to detect the separated echo components, while the inflection points are combined with corresponding peak points to detect the overlapping echo components. The detected echo components are then sorted according to their energies in a descending order. The sorted echo components are one by one added into the decomposition model according to their orders. For each addition, the parameters of all echo components already added into the decomposition model are iteratively renewed. After renewing, the amplitudes and full width at half maximums of the echo components are compared with pre-set thresholds to determine and remove the false echo components. Both simulation and experiment were carried out to evaluate the proposed method. In simulation, 4000 full-waveform echoes with different numbers and parameters of echo components were generated and decomposed using the proposed and three other commonly used methods. Results show that the proposed method is of the highest success rate, 91.43%. In experiment, 9549 Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) echoes for Shennongjia forest district in south China were employed as test echoes. The test echoes were first decomposed using the four methods and the decomposition results were also compared with those provided by the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Comparison results show that the determination coefficient () of the proposed method is of the largest mean, 0.6838, and the smallest standard deviation, 0.3588, and the distribution of the number of the echo components decomposed from the GLAS echoes is the most satisfied with the situation of full-waveform echoes from the forest area, implying that the superposition of the echo components decomposed from a full-waveform echo by using the proposed method can best approximate the full-waveform echo.

Volume backscattering strength of ice krill (Euphausia crystallorophias) in the Amundsen Sea coastal polynya

Volume backscattering strength (Sv in dB re 1m−1) of ice krill (Euphausia crystallorophias) was observed at two frequencies (38 and 120kHz) with a calibrated split-beam echosounder system in the Amundsen Sea coastal polynya. The horizontal and vertical scattering layers in the upper 200m of the water column were known with the existence of predominant ice krill (>95%) in this region. Acoustic identification using a two-frequency dB window between Sv at 38 and Sv at 120kHz separated echoes originating from dominant ice krill from other zooplankton species. The frequency dependence of ice krill at 38 and 120kHz was examined and the result presented that ice krill might have different acoustic characteristics from other Southern Ocean zooplankton species including Euphausia superba. This result could be applied to improve the ability of acoustic identification and precise density estimation of ice krill in the high-latitude coastal waters of Antarctica.

DETECTION OF A LIGHT ECHO FROM THE OTHERWISE NORMAL SN 2007af

We present the discovery of a light echo from SN 2007af, a normal Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) in NGC 5584. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images taken three years post explosion reveal two separate echoes; an outer echo and extended central region, which we propose as an unresolved inner echo. Multiple images were obtained in the F160W, F350LP, F555W, and F814W using the Wide Field Camera 3. If the outer echo is produced by an interstellar dust sheet perpendicular to the line of sight, it is located ~800 pc in front of the SN. The dust for the inner echo is 0.45 pc < d < 90 pc away from the SN. The inner echo color is consistent with typical interstellar dust wavelength-dependent scattering cross-sections, while the outer echo color does not match the predictions. Both dust sheets, if in the foreground, are optically thin for scattering, with the outer echo sheet thickness consistent with the inferred extinction from peak brightness. Whether the inner echo is from interstellar or circumstellar dust is ambiguous. Overall, the echo characteristics are quite similar to previously observed SN Ia echoes.

Adaptive split spectrum processing for ultrasonic signal in the pulse echo test

In this paper, an Adaptive Split Spectrum Processing technique (A-SSP) is proposed, to improve ultrasonic echoes detection. It is an arrangement of conventional Split Spectrum Processing (SSP) with an empirical method of analyzing nonlinear and non-stationary signals, called Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD). This proposed technique allows breaking up the signal into several bands of frequencies in an adaptive way and intrinsic to the treated signal using EMD. It enables us to know the internal contents and the local changes of the ultrasonic signal and makes the detection of any desired targets more flexible for the coherent noise problem. In the combination phase of A-SSP, a linear operation for selected intrinsic mode functions and a non linear one for non selected intrinsic mode functions are used to reconstruct the signal with separated echoes. To evaluate the proposed techniques (A-SSP with different combination operations), firstly a mortar specimen with artificial defect is used to resolve the defects detection and localization problem. Secondly a paste cement specimen is also used to resolve the materials characterization problem. The signals were obtained using a technique applied in pulse-echo mode, known as the prism technique. Numerical and experimental tests were performed to verify the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed technique and to show its excellent performances.

High resolution wide swath revisit synthetic aperture radar imaging mode and algorithm

Based on the squint mode, a high resolution wide swath revisit synthetic aperture radar （SAR） imaging mode is pro- posed. The transmitting antennas are configured as the single phase center multiple azimuth beams （SPC MAB）. The formed two beams point to two different directions to obtain two images of the observed scenario. The receiving antennas are configured as displaced phase center multiple azimuth beams （DPC MAB） to decrease the required pulse repetition frequency （PRF）. The de- creased PRF can ensure the high resolution wide swath imaging. Based on the analysis of the character of the return signal, a pro- cessing method named multiple beam multiple channel algorithm （MBMCA） is proposed to separate the aliased sub-beams＇ echoes. The separated echoes are focused respectively to get the revisit imaging to the observed scenario. The simulation experiments ve- rify the validity and correctness of the proposed imaging mode and processing algorithm.

AdaBoost 알고리즘과 레이더 데이터를 이용한 채프에코 식별에 관한 연구

In pattern recognition field, data classification is an essential process for extracting meaningful information from data. Adaptive boosting algorithm, known as AdaBoost algorithm, is a kind of improved boosting algorithm for applying to real data analysis. It consists of weak classifiers, such as random guessing or random forest, which performance is slightly more than 50% and weights for combining the classifiers. And a strong classifier is created with the weak classifiers and the weights. In this paper, a research is performed using AdaBoost algorithm for detecting chaff echo which has similar characteristics to precipitation echo and interrupts weather forecasting. The entire process for implementing chaff echo classifier starts spatial and temporal clustering based on similarity with weather radar data. With them, learning data set is prepared that separated chaff echo and non-chaff echo, and the AdaBoost classifier is generated as a result. For verifying the classifier, actual chaff echo appearance case is applied, and it is confirmed that the classifier can distinguish chaff echo efficiently.

Quantification of total and visceral adipose tissue in fructose‐fed rats using water‐fat separated single echo MRI

The aim of this study was to setup a rodent model for modest weight gain and an MRI-based quantification of body composition on a clinical 1.5 T MRI system for studies of obesity and environmental factors and their possible association. Twenty-four 4-week-old female Fischer rats were divided into two groups: one exposed group (n = 12) and one control group (n = 12). The exposed group was given drinking water containing fructose (5% for 7 weeks, then 20% for 3 weeks). The control group was given tap water. Before sacrifice, whole body MRI was performed to determine volumes of total and visceral adipose tissue and lean tissue. MRI was performed using a clinical 1.5 T system and a chemical shift based technique for separation of water and fat signal from a rapid single echo acquisition. Fat signal fraction was used to separate adipose and lean tissue. Visceral adipose tissue volume was quantified using semiautomated segmentation. After sacrifice, a perirenal fat pad and the liver were dissected and weighed. Plasma proteins were analyzed by Western blot. The weight gain was 5.2% greater in rats exposed to fructose than in controls (P = 0.042). Total and visceral adipose tissue volumes were 5.2 cm3 (P = 0.017) and 3.1 cm3 (P = 0.019) greater, respectively, while lean tissue volumes did not differ. The level of triglycerides and apolipoprotein A-I was higher (P = 0.034, P = 0.005, respectively) in fructose-exposed rats. The setup induced and assessed a modest visceral obesity and hypertriglyceridemia, making it suitable for further studies of a possible association between environmental factors and obesity.

Accuracy and Resolution Capacity of MRL-5(Is) Radar Ornithological Station and its Potential Development

Abstract Dinevich L., Leshem Y. 2012. Accuracy and resolution capacity of MRL-5(Is) radar ornithological station and its potential development. Ring 34: 3-21. The paper presents the comprehensive assessment of the resolution capacity of MRL-5(Is) radar ornithological station developed in Israel. Theoretical calculations, as well as experimental testing and field experience enable the authors to evaluate the station’s performance and to suggest new directions of its potential development. The computer-controlled system is able to select bird echoes and plot ornithological charts for distances up to 60 km. Under conditions of normal refraction at distances of 5-25 km, MRL-5(Is) is able to detect all the birds (undisguised by hills) at the horizon level. A bird as big as a stork flying 100 m higher than the radar location reflects an echo strong enough to be detected by the radar at the distance of 90 km. In the daytime, at the distance of up to 60 km from the radar, under conditions of the open horizon, the station detects 56-83% of migrating birds flying at the altitude of over 100 m above the radar location. At night, at the distance of up to 30 km from the radar, the station detects 74-89% of migrating birds flying at 150 m above the radar location. At the distances of 20 and 50 km, the resolution capacity of the station (i.e. detecting separated echoes of two or more birds flying at a distance from each other) are Δr = 200 m and Δr = 400 m, respectively; regarding the height and the tangential component; distance-wise, the capacity is 150 m regardless of the distance to the target. Systematic observations of seasonal bird migration in the daytime and at night conducted during two autumn seasons and two spring seasons showed that the number of birds flying via Israel is significantly lower in spring than in autumn.