1. The IMO Video Meteor Network
Meteor Orbit Determination Workshop #3, Noordwijk/NL, April 17-20, 2010
The IMO Video Meteor Network
Sirko Molau
Arbeitskreis Meteore e.V. (AKM)
International Meteor Organization (IMO)
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Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network

2. Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network
Overview
History
Current Status
IMO Video Meteor Database
Results
Towards VMO
MetRec 5
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Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network

3. Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network
History
Start of the AKM Video Meteor Network in Germany
First station outside Germany
Renamed to IMO Video Meteor Network
observers in 9 European countries (Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Finland, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Czech Rep., Netherlands) + USA
Further growing (e.g. Australia)
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Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network

4. Current Status (I) Chararcteristics of the IMO Network
Network of independent video observers
each member operates his own equipment at his own costs
all stations use the same software (MetRec) and data format
Most stations run automated, partly at remote sites
data are provided monthly to the IMO Video Meteor Database
Variety of different video systems (intensified / non-intensified, small fov / large fov)
Taken as single station observations, but in practice there is significant overlap of fovs in central Europe
focus on collecting precise single station data
subsequent orbit determination in VMO planned
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Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network

5. Current Status of the Network (II)
Legend
 Regular observer
 “Sporadic” observer
Not shown:
 Las Palmas / ES
 Chula Vista / USA
 Tucson / USA
As of 12/2009
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Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network

6. Current Status of the Network (III)
Google Earth view of FOVs at 100 km altitude
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Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network

7. Current Status of the Network (IV)
Google Earth view of FOVs at 100 km altitude
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Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network

8. IMO Video Meteor Database (I)
Content
For each night:
a logfile (text) from each observation
dBase files (PosDat) with the position data of all meteors
For each meteor:
a sum image
a „meteor band“ with 1/25s or 1/30s temporal resolution
a text file with detailed photometric and astrometric data (contains all relevant data for further processing like orbit determination)
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Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network

9. IMO Video Meteor Database (II)
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Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network

10. IMO Video Meteor Database (III)
Status
All video observations from 1993 to 2009 are archived
>550,000 meteors in PosDat format, accessible at
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11. Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network
Results (I)
Monthly reports on IMO News and in WGN including preliminary analyses of individual meteor showers
Recordings of unusual meteors and fireballs
Automated analyses of overall shower activity and individual meteor showers (Molau & Rendtel, 2009)
9 major and 44 minor meteor showers were detected, among them 12 new showers
For each shower, the activity interval and maximum, the radiant position and drift, the velocity and an activity profile (Video rate – similar to ZHR) were presented
Discovery of continuous increase (e.g. LYR, ETA, KCG) or decrease (e.g. SDA, QUA, CAP, NOO, JPE) of meteor shower velocity in the activity interval
Corrections for individual showers (e.g. DLM/COM), other „established“ MDC showers were not detected at all (e.g. PPU, TAH, COR, PCA, OCC)
Confirmation of other observations and results (e.g. SonotaCo network)
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12. Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network
Results (II)
IMO Network
Each dot one radiant
radiants with met.
Radiant velocity color coded
Radiants strength intensity coded
SonotaCo Network
Each dot one orbit
orbits
Radiant velocity color coded
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13. Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network
Results (III)
Examples
Precise activity profiles for meteor showers, even when ZHRmax < 5
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14. Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network
Results (IV)
Examples
Velocity decrease of SDA and CAP in July/August
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Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network

15. Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network
Results (V)
Examples
New meteor showers (mainly in July / August thanks to the large data set)
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16. Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network
Towards VMO
Recent Achievements
Preparation of MetRec import filter for VMO incl. consistency checks (G. Barentsen, testing: D. Koschny)
Initial import of all data (G. Barentsen)
Further optimization of observation post-processing to prevent typical errors
Significant reduction of manual consistency checks
To Do
Automated upload of observations to VMO after post-processing
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17. Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network
MetRec 5 (I)
Latest Development
Two major limitations of MetRec
Software was written for DOS and runs only on DOS/Win98
Supports only Matrox Meteor framegrabber family (which is also of certain advantage)
In 2008, ESA programmer H. Smith started to work on a Windows port
In 2009, Hans and me have cooperated intensively on this issue
The code base for DOS and Win has been combined, all OS specific functions were moved to specific modules
Some core routines (frame handling, time determination) underwent a significant redesign and simplification
A number of bugs that went unnoticed under DOS were identified and corrected
New features were implemented on the new code base
The combined code base was taken over by me in fall 2009, the new version MetRec 5 is available as beta since late 2009
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18. Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network
MetRec 5 (II)
New Features
Grab/GrabSeq/GrabStrm: date & time stamp can be inserted
MetRec: a background image may be saved after a predefined amount of time; DST correction;
Ref2Txt & Txt2Kml: create KML files in a comfortable way
RadFind & StrmFind: implementation of the new radiant and meteor shower search algorithm (observability function, Laplace distribution, recomputed meteor shower assignment, meteor altitude formula); shower identification based on the MDC working list with >300 showers
RefStars: combined measurement of several reference images
MetRec, PostProc & Co: extension of PosDat header IDs 000-ZZZ, the frame grabber device number can be chosen if more than one grabber is installed (not yet fully tested)
PostProc: eff. observing time correction, data copying, PosDat file correction
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Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network

19. Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network
MetRec 5 (III)
Current Status
The massive re-organization and simplification of source code required a longer stabilization phase (also of the DOS version)
A few minor function are still missing in the Windows version, but both version are actively used now
Remaining Limits
Still dependent on Meteor II framegrabber, which was discontinued by Matrox in 2008 (but which is still readily available at EBAY)
Code compiles on 32 and 64 bit Windows, but Matrox meteor driver is only available for XP
On the long run, either the support of next generation Matrox framegrabbers or the switch to OS video interfaces (incl. MIL replacement) is required
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20. Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network
End
Questions?
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Sirko Molau: The IMO Video Meteor Network