(meteorobs) Piggybacking TLE observations onto all-sky meteor network

[Chris Peterson]

Whether allsky cameras can record TLEs depends on both the nature of the 
TLEs and the type of capture software. As you know, I've occasionally 
recorded sprites. This is with Metrec, which is rather sensitive to 
flashes. But I'm fine tuning my capture detection software to reject 
lightning. So ultimately, I'd like to filter out all TLEs other than 
meteors. I think that is probably a goal of many software developers 
focusing on meteor detection. So don't be too surprised if one day a 
Sentinel update results in reduced detection of lightning events!

Chris

*******************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

On 10/29/2011 8:47 AM, Thomas Ashcraft wrote:
> I am noting here that the all-sky meteor camera network can
> simultaneously and effortlessly observe for transient luminous events as
> well as meteors. I think many TLEs are currently being overlooked in our
> data. Maybe at some point someone will realize the value of the
> observations and set up some sort of TLE data collection network. It
> would be easy to accomplish.
>
> Here is an example of an unreported TLE ( red "carrot" sprite ) captured
> by three cameras on the Sentinel fireball network in New Mexico and I am
> aware of one other non-Sentinel camera capture which gives four separate
> views of one sprite event in space with precise timing. This is very
> useful scientific data.
>
> http://skysentinel.nmsu.edu/allsky/index.php/viewer/78977
> http://skysentinel.nmsu.edu/allsky/index.php/viewer/79004
> Here is my camera view of this sprite with radio emissions:
> http://www.heliotown.com/SPSep092011_040152mag_Ashcraft.mp4
>
> A few years ago I used to dump all my lightning captures as they tend to
> accumulate and take up hard drive space but I wish I had saved them as
> the archive would be useful for data mining.
>
> Also I am finding that observing and recording TLEs directly produces
> many meteor captures so the two scientific practices are mutually symbiotic.
>
> Clear skies,
> Thomas Ashcraft in New Mexico
> http://www.heliotown.com/Radio_Sprites_Ashcraft.html
>