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(meteorobs) RMOB/ radio work
>>>...Do you carry out analysis of your own data, or do you 'pool' data
with other observers such as Chris? Does his Radio Meteor Observer's
Bulletin contain only data, or is there articles that a novice (me) might
find informative?...<<<
Mark,
I'm not a spokesperson for RMOB but I hope the following info will hold up.
Raw counts are submitted to RMOB and you have to interpret the numbers
according to each individual observatory's relationship to a specific
shower radiant or to where an observatory is located in relation to local
dawn (which can add morning sporadics into the mix.) Position and local
elevation of the shower radiant is a paramount factor in a count. Radio
system sensitivity is a factor. One observer may receive 800 reflections
whereas another may get 400 reflections for the same hour. There are other
factors such as latitude, frequency, transmitter power, transmitter
distances, etc. It can get quite complicated.
BUT......with enough observers synchronously monitoring and correlating, a
picture of activity can and does indeed develop.
For example, last year, RMOB observers successfully correlated the "new
peak" of the Perseids. Radio folks in Japan, Europe and my own New Mexico
observatory detected a denser debris belt around 1800 UT August 12. I
thought that was very encouraging. By the way, 1800 UT is local noon in New
Mexico but the Perseid radiant was line of sight here then and radio
accessible.
Hopefully the Perseid effort will happen again this year. We'll see in a
couple of weeks.
---Tom Ashcraft
Following is an excerpt of The Radio Meteor Observer's Bulletin.
2. ABOUT THE RMOB
The RMOB is an independent initiative of some workers in the field of radio
meteor scatter observations and data reduction. It started in August 1993
in order to spread rapidly the Perseid results via E-mail. Since then, it
has appeared monthly, and has gradually been expanded.
Typically it contains: summaries of recent observations, first results of
stream activity by radio methods, relations between radio and optical
meteors, references to other publications in the field of meteor astronomy
and radio scatter techniques, announcements of meetings, short questions
and
answers, non-commercial (second hand) sale of radio equipment, available
software.
Contributors are mentioned, and interested persons are asked to contact
them
directly.
RMOB can be copied freely in unabridged and unmodified form. Extracts
should
indicate the source (Radio Meteor Obs Bulletin, month and year).
If you want to subscribe (or unsubscribe) to the E-mail distribution list,
please send a message to C. Steyaert.
Those not having access to E-mail can obtain a printed copy free of charge
from J. Van Wassenhove (current or back-issues).