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(meteorobs) AKM Video Meteor Observations 2000 - Summary
AKM Video Meteor Observations 2000 - Summary
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The last year was a very successful one for the video observers in the
German Arbeitskreis Meteore. 8 (1999: 5) observers recorded in 239 (1999: 120)
nights and 2301.3 hours (1999: 1002.4) effective observing time an overall of
11,659 (1999: 6,476) meteors. In other words: The outcome of last year could
be doubled. 239 observing nights is a coverage of almost 2/3 of the year!
There are three camera stations (Aachen, Dresden, Marquardt) which supplied
observations in all twelve months. The other stations were only part-time
operated. About 1/3 of the observing time was supplied by Juergen Rendtel and
Sirko Molau, the last third was contributed by the remaining observers. Ulrich
Sperberg had to give up already in January when his image intensifier broke
down. As soon as the new AKM video cameras will be ready, his station
Salzwedel will become active again. Because of poor camera parameters, the
video system of Detlef Koschny recorded only very few meteors in the first
months. In August, however, it got a new fast wide-angle lens and yielded
similar detection rates as the other cameras from then on.
Table 1 gives the detailed statistics of operation times for all participating
video observers. RENJU and MOLSI operated their systems in virtually every
clear night, even if skies cleared only briefly. Hence, the different number
of observing nights reflects better weather conditions especially in the cold
months in east Germany. On the other hand, the image intensifier of AVIS is
more powerful than that of CARMEN, resulting in a better limiting magnitude
and more meteor records. Whereas CARMEN detected an average of 3.8 meteors
per hour, it was 6.3 meteors per hour for AVIS.
Table 1: Operation Times of the AKM Video Cameras 2000
Observer Camera Primary Site Nights Time [h] Meteors
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Juergen Rendtel CARMEN Marquardt 158 811.7 3,085
Sirko Molau AVIS, ESCIMO Aachen 146 709.9 4,507
Mirko Nitschke VK1, VK2 Dresden 62 290.6 2,021
Ilkka Yrjola NONAME Kuusankosi 34 172.5 631
Joerg Strunk FAMOS Leopoldshoehe 26 149.0 858
Detlef Koschny ICC Noordwijkerhout 20 113.2 386
IAP team IAP1 Kuehlungsborn 4 38.3 139
Ulrich Sperberg ADAM Salzwedel 2 16.1 32
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Overall 239 2301.3 11,659
Table 2 shows the monthly distribution of observations. Ignoring August,
the number of cameras operated each month was almost constant.
The main weather situation is best reflected by the observing time: March and
July provided extremely poor conditions, whereas in April and since August
20 and more nights could be used for observations each month. On top of the
list are August and September.
The Perseids are well reflected in the number of meteor records. However,
there is some bias since during major meteor showers more cameras than
usual are operated. The last column gives the average number of meteors per
hour for the two cameras operated in every clear night (AVIS, CARMEN). Here
we can clearly see the annual variations in meteor activity.
The year starts relatively slow (the Quadrantids 2000 were clouded out).
Shortly thereafter meteor actitivy reaches it's absolute minimum without
any major shower in February and March. Despite the Lyrids not much happens
in April. The May data are biased by our eta-Aquarid expedition to Jordan,
but at least in June increasing meteor activity becomes evident. Due to the
short nights, this is not reflected in the absolute meteor counts, however.
By July activity has reached the all-year average thanks to a number of minor
showers, and briefly thereafter we have the annual maximum in August caused by
the Perseids and their long activity period. Meteor counts drop briefly in
September, but recover in October again thanks to the Orionids, Taurids, and
increased sporadic rates. The remainder of the year stays active, even though
we missed both the maxima of the Leonids and Geminids in 2000.
The net effect of all factors (duration of night, global weather situation,
meteor activity) is that more than 80% of all meteors were recorded in the
second half of the year.
Our video data show also clearly the daily variations in meteor activity. On
long winter evenings it may happen, that there is not one meteor detected in
one hour, whereas in the morning hours there are typically more than ten
meteors per hour.
Table 2: Monthly Distribution of Video Meteor Observations 2000
Month Cam Nights Time Meteors Met/Hour
---------------------------------------------
January 5 17 190.8 679 3.2
February 3 16 137.1 391 2.8
March 4 9 52.4 101 2.0
April 5 21 182.4 429 2.4
May 4 19 107.4 342 3.4
June 3 19 93.5 286 3.2
July 5 14 60.5 339 5.1
August 8 27 342.2 2,997 8.6
September 5 28 339.2 1,601 4.9
October 5 20 217.3 1,321 6.5
November 6 25 259.9 1,354 5.3
December 5 24 318.6 1,819 6.4
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Overall 10 239 2301.3 11,659 5.0
--
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* Dipl.-Inform. Sirko Molau * *
* RWTH Aachen, Lehrstuhl fuer Informatik VI * __ *
* Ahornstr. 55, D-52056 Aachen, Germany * " 2B v 2B " *
* * *
* phone: +49-241-8021615 * Shakespeare *
* fax : +49-241-8888219 * *
* email: molau@informatik.rwth-aachendot de * *
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* www : http://www-i6.informatik.rwth-aachendot de/Colleagues/molau *
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