|
SPMN NETWORK RESEARCHERS
The activities carried out by the SPMN team are mainly based on the study of meteors, fireballs and meteorites. Different types of studies are being performed, such as the calculation of meteoroid orbits from video and CCD techniques, stream's spatial densities, elucidation of meteor parent bodies, meteor spectroscopy,
meteor atmospheric modelling, identification of meteorites and meteorite recovery, and development of meteor software.
Our team consists of researchers of different scientific disciplines interested in an interdisciplinary study on meteors and meteorites. Astrophysicists, geophysicists, geologists, chemists and astronomers work together as a whole to improve our knowledge about this interesting field.
The SPMN Network is open to the participation of other professional researchers and also to the cooperation of amateur people. The network is coordinated from the Meteorites, Minor Bodies and Planetary Sciences Group at the Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC-IEEC) most important research lines covered by our team and the contact persons are:
Meteorite characterization: Josep M. Trigo-Rodriguez (Project PI, CSIC-IEEC) and Jordi Llorca (UPC)
New techniques applied to study meteorites, and sample return: Josep M. Trigo-Rodriguez (CSIC-IEEC) and Jordi Ibañez (CSIC)
Determination of meteoroid orbits and spectroscopy of meteors and fireballs: Josep M. Trigo-Rodriguez (CSIC-IEEC) & Eloy Peña Asensio (CSIC-UAB)
Seismic and infrasound detection and analysis of bolides: Mar Tapia (LAEGEF-IEC)
SPMN NETWORK COVERAGE
The Spanish Photographic Meteor Network monitors the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal),
but also the south of France and North of Morocco. First campaigns started in 1997 from which we obtained the first peer-reviewed first quartile articles on meteor science obtained from Spain. The first four station all-sky CCD cameras, and allowing a full coverage of meteoric activity over continental Spain started operation during 2005. Nowadays, our all-sky CCD and video cameras are set in more
than 50 stations that are not only detecting fireballs, but also meteors brighter than magnitude +3. As a by-product of
our research we obtain accurate estimations of the flux density of annual streams and elusive meteor outbursts using video cameras. We are also interested in characterizing the dynamic origin and nature of minor showers.
Currently operational SPMN stations.
AMATEUR PARTICIPATION IN OUR NETWORK
Our network tries to promote the active participation of amateur astronomers at different levels.
We are particularly aware of the importance of popularizing all these aspects to the people, and different types of
efforts are conducted. Several amateur astronomers collaborate with the SPMN, allowing a continuous scan of meteor events
from several stations. During the 90's decade we promoted this field that was nearly unknown in our country. Nowadays our camera system monitors all Spain, and amateurs are invited to send their own captures of meteors and fireballs that are
daily included in our SPMN fireball list . Amateur participation is, in fact, a nice way to introduce the people in this field of astronomy. The different stations
analyze the meteor activity around the year, and the camera operators dedicate part of their time to get valuable
scientific data. Each people contribute with its time and intruments to obtain images that professional astronomers will
analize to obtain the astrometric measurements. In order to participate in our network please contact
SPMN
|
