Geminids 2010 in Andoya

09-17 Dec 2010

This year, ESA/RSSD's Meteor Research Group joined the ECOMA campaign to observe 'meteoric smoke particles' using three sounding rockets from the Andoya Rocket Range in Norway. We provided optical observations to support the measurements. We deployed two stations, one next to the MAARSY radar in Andoya itself, manned by Andre Knofel and Detlef Koschny, one about 100 km south close to Lodingen, manned by Joe Zender and Felix Bettonvil.

The weather could have been better - we only had a few hours of clear skies simultaneously at both sites. Anyway, we will be able to compute flux rates based on optical observations, which will help constraining the total flux when compared with the radar flux rates of the SKYiNET radar. We have also recorded the first ever spectrum of a Geminid which was also recorded via the head-echo radar MAARSY.

Some interesting links:

Andre's blog showing some pictures of the LIDAR and aurorae (in German);

A meteor spectrum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sqWuSiiIGuk

The launch of the Black Brant rocket, using the SPOSH camera. : https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5zFbXLDqIXo