Abstract: A summary of the activity of the CAMS BeNeLux network during the month of February 2022 is presented. This month was good for a total of 5770 multi-station meteors resulting in 1939 orbits. Most of them were collected during the last ten days of this month.

 

Introduction

Meteor activity in February is nearly at the lowest level for northern latitudes. After a poor month of January, we hoped for some improvement this month.

 

 

February 2022 statistics

In February the gloomy weather continued until February 20 for most of our stations. Mean temperatures were again fairly high, due to lack of clear skies during the night. Once more the northern stations were hampered by long periods of overcast skies, where the more southern stations could at least get some results like on February 7–9, and February 16,18 and 19.

So, the effect that the active more northern stations got less results than the stations in the southern parts of the BeNeLux was maintained during the first twenty nights of this month. During five February nights, all during the first two third of this month, we couldn’t collect any data at all.

The last week however weather improved significantly, culminating in complete clear and transparent nights towards the end of the month.

CAMS-BeNeLux collected 5770 multi-station meteors this month, resulting in a total of 1939 orbits, 1154 of them in the last 8 nights, or nearly 60% of the total amount of orbits this month.

The number of orbits derived from more than two stations remained at the low level of approximately 60% during the first three weeks. As a result of the clear and transparent last period of February, this percentage increased to nearly 70% then.

On average 63.7 cameras were active during the nights this month. This number is lower than last year, because for different reasons some stations were only partly operational or not at all active this month. Prospects are good however that stations at Burlage, Gent, Zoersel and Alphen will deliver results again in the near future. In Humain a new camera was added to the network, delivering results since 8 February. Some more new cameras will be added to our network in the coming weeks.

Figure 1 – Comparing February 2022 to previous months of February in the CAMS BeNeLux history. The blue bars represent the number of orbits, the red bars the maximum number of cameras running in a single night and the green bars the average number of cameras running per night.

 

Table 1 – February 2022 compared to previous months of February.

Year Nights Orbits Stations Max. Cams Min. Cams Avg. Cams
2013 9 38 6 5 – 2.3
2014 21 601 12 29 – 20.3
2015 21 777 14 39 – 27.4
2016 24 1075 17 51 13 36.9
2017 16 717 18 53 20 38.6
2018 26 4147 22 91 48 81.7
2019 24 3485 18 74 50 68.8
2020 24 1215 22 84 62 73.1
2021 25 2136 26 91 60 78.6
2022 23 1939 24 78 49 63.7
Total 213 16130

 

Conclusion

The results for February 2022 are the fourth best during 10 years of CAMS BeNeLux.

 

Acknowledgment

Many thanks to all participants in the CAMS-BeNeLux network for their dedicated efforts. The CAMS-BeNeLux team was operated by the following volunteers during the month of February 2022:

Hans Betlem (Woold, CAMS 3071, 3072 and 3073), Jean-Marie Biets (Wilderen, Belgium, CAMS 379, 380, 381 and 382), Ludger Boergerding (Holdorf, Germany, RMS 3801), Martin Breukers (Hengelo, Netherlands, CAMS 320, 321, 322, 323, 324, 325, 326 and 327, RMS 319, 328 and 329), Seppe Canonaco (Genk, RMS 3818, RMS 3819), Pierre de Ponthiere (Lesve, Belgium, RMS 3816), Tammo Jan Dijkema (Dwingeloo, Netherlands, RMS  3199), Isabelle Ansseau, Jean-Paul Dumoulin, Dominique Guiot and Christian Walin (Grapfontaine, Belgium, CAMS 814 and 815, RMS 3814, RMS 3817), Uwe Glässner (Langenfeld, Germany, RMS 3800), Luc Gobin (Mechelen, Belgium, CAMS 3890, 3891, 3892 and 3893), Tioga Gulon (Nancy, France, CAMS 3900 and 3901), Robert Haas (Alphen aan de Rijn, Netherlands, CAMS 3160, 3161, 3162, 3163, 3164, 3165, 3166 and 3167), Robert Haas (Texel, Netherlands, CAMS 811, 812 and 813), Kees Habraken (Kattendijke, Netherlands, RMS 378), Klaas Jobse (Oostkapelle, Netherlands, CAMS 3030, 3031, 3032, 3033, 3034, 3035, 3036 and 3037), Carl Johannink (Gronau, Germany, CAMS 3100, 3101 and 3102), Reinhard Kühn (Flatzby, Germany, RMS 3802), Hervé Lamy (Dourbes, Belgium, CAMS 394 and 395), Hervé Lamy (Humain Belgium, CAMS 816, RMS 3821), Hervé Lamy (Ukkel, Belgium, CAMS 393), Koen Miskotte (Ermelo, Netherlands, CAMS 3051, 3052, 3053 and 3054), Tim Polfliet (Gent, Belgium, CAMS 396, RMS 3820), Steve Rau (Zillebeke, Belgium, CAMS 3850, 3852, RMS 3851, RMS 3853), Paul and Adriana Roggemans (Mechelen, Belgium, RMS 3830 and 3831, CAMS 3832, 3833, 3834, 3835, 3836 and 3837), Hans Schremmer (Niederkruechten, Germany, CAMS 803).