Abstract: A summary of the activity of the CAMS BeNeLux network during the month of March 2022 is presented. This month was good for a total of 10436 multi-station meteors resulting in 3189 orbits, a record number for March.
Introduction
Meteor activity in March is now reaching the lowest level for northern latitudes. The sunny weather at the end of February continued throughout March, resulting in a record number of orbits.
March 2022 statistics
When we look at the mean temperatures, March shows a peculiar pattern. The whole month was nearly one degree warmer than normal. But there was a striking difference between mean temperatures during daytime and nighttime. Maximum temperatures were nearly 3 degrees higher than normal, on the opposite, minimum temperatures were more than 1 degree below normal. That could mean only two things: a lot of sunshine at daytime, and a lot of clear skies at night.
In fact, the BeNeLux had a record month of March for sunshine. Approximately 255 hours of sunshine is more than 20% higher than the sunniest March between 1901 and 2021. This month would even get a top-10 ranking for sunshine in June, July or August, what emphasizes the unique situation in March 2022.
As a result, only 2 nights remained without any orbit this month. CAMS BeNeLux collected 10436 multi-station meteors this month, resulting in a total of 3189 orbits.
The number of orbits derived from more than two stations was, due to the clear weather at a fairly high level of approximately 73.1%. On average 70.6 cameras were active during the nights this month. This number is lower than last year (78.9), because for different reasons some stations were only partly active or not active at all this month.
The station at Ermelo suffered irreparable hardware problems at the end of March. Prospects are good however that this station as well as the stations at Burlage and Zoersel will again deliver results in the near future. Fortunately, the station at Gent is active again since early April.
Some more new cameras will be added to our network next month.
Figure 1 – Comparing March 2022 to previous months of March 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 – March 2022 compared to previous months of March.
| Year | Nights | Orbits | Stations | Max. Cams | Min. Cams | Mean Cams |
| 2012 | 2 | 12 | 2 | 2 | – | 2.0 |
| 2013 | 10 | 69 | 6 | 7 | – | 4.2 |
| 2014 | 24 | 793 | 12 | 29 | – | 22.8 |
| 2015 | 23 | 1033 | 14 | 42 | – | 31.7 |
| 2016 | 23 | 856 | 16 | 51 | 12 | 38.2 |
| 2017 | 26 | 1048 | 19 | 55 | 20 | 44.4 |
| 2018 | 25 | 1280 | 22 | 91 | 53 | 73.5 |
| 2019 | 29 | 1215 | 20 | 78 | 54 | 64.4 |
| 2020 | 27 | 3026 | 25 | 93 | 66 | 81.7 |
| 2021 | 28 | 1998 | 27 | 91 | 59 | 78.9 |
| 2022 | 29 | 3189 | 24 | 79 | 58 | 70.6 |
| Total | 246 | 14519 |
Conclusion
The results for March 2022 are the best during 11 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 March 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), Giuseppe Canonaco (Genk, RMS 3818, RMS 3819), Pierre de Ponthiere (Lesve, Belgium, RMS 3816 and 3826), Bart Dessoy (Zoersel, Belgium, CAMS 397, 398, 804, 805 and 806), 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), 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, 3102, 3103 and 3104), Reinhard Kühn (Flatzby, Germany, RMS 3802), Hervé Lamy (Dourbes, Belgium, CAMS 394 and 395, RMS 3825), 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).
