European Fireball Network
Encyclopedia
European Fireball Network is an international organization based in Central Europe (Germany
and Czech Republic
). Its purpose is systematic and simultaneous night observation of meteor
s and other nebular objects from several stations for scientific purposes.
The network was initiated locally at the Ondřejov Observatory
, Czech Republic, after the fall of the Příbram meteorite on 7 April 1959, which was the first meteorite simultaneously observed by several stations. By 1963, the network consisted of 5 stations. It was later (about 1968) expanded by the installation of about 15 new stations in Germany and named the European Fireball Network.
The network currently consists of at least 34 camera stations located in Germany
, Czech Republic
, Belgium
, Luxembourg
, Switzerland
and Austria
at elevations up to 1846 m above mean sea level. The cameras are separated by a distance of about 100 km; they cover an area of about one million square kilometers and photograph the entire visible sky. Cameras of Czech stations are equipped with fisheye lens
es and are directed towards the zenith
. Sky recordings are made every night with a long exposure time. Quickly moving bright objects (meteor
s) appear as broken traces in the images, and from the exposure time, the burn time and the angular velocity of the object can be determined. An important feature of the network is the simultaneous observation of an object from several stations that allows accurate three-dimensional reconstruction of its trajectory using triangulation
. The network is jointly operated by the German Aerospace Center
(DLR) and the Institute of Planetary Research in Prague
(Ondřejov Observatory
). It produces about 10,000 images per year documenting about 1200 hours of clear sky observations. Its cameras detect about 50 large meteors per year.
The most famous observation by the network is the fall of the Neuschwanstein meteorite
in 6 April 2002. Detailed data obtained from several stations allowed accurate reconstruction not only of the meteor path in the Earth atmosphere, but also of its orbit around the Sun. The similarity of the reconstructed orbits of the Neuschwanstein and Příbram allowed associating these meteorites to the same parent body.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
). Its purpose is systematic and simultaneous night observation of meteor
METEOR
METEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...
s and other nebular objects from several stations for scientific purposes.
The network was initiated locally at the Ondřejov Observatory
Ondrejov Observatory
The Ondřejov Observatory is the principal observatory of the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It is located near the village of Ondřejov, 35 km southeast of Prague....
, Czech Republic, after the fall of the Příbram meteorite on 7 April 1959, which was the first meteorite simultaneously observed by several stations. By 1963, the network consisted of 5 stations. It was later (about 1968) expanded by the installation of about 15 new stations in Germany and named the European Fireball Network.
The network currently consists of at least 34 camera stations located in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
at elevations up to 1846 m above mean sea level. The cameras are separated by a distance of about 100 km; they cover an area of about one million square kilometers and photograph the entire visible sky. Cameras of Czech stations are equipped with fisheye lens
Fisheye lens
In photography, a fisheye lens is a wide-angle lens that takes in a broad, panoramic and hemispherical image. Originally developed for use in meteorology to study cloud formation and called "whole-sky lenses", fisheye lenses quickly became popular in general photography for their unique, distorted...
es and are directed towards the zenith
Zenith
The zenith is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the imaginary celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction opposite to the apparent gravitational force at that location. The opposite direction, i.e...
. Sky recordings are made every night with a long exposure time. Quickly moving bright objects (meteor
METEOR
METEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...
s) appear as broken traces in the images, and from the exposure time, the burn time and the angular velocity of the object can be determined. An important feature of the network is the simultaneous observation of an object from several stations that allows accurate three-dimensional reconstruction of its trajectory using triangulation
Triangulation
In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by measuring angles to it from known points at either end of a fixed baseline, rather than measuring distances to the point directly...
. The network is jointly operated by the German Aerospace Center
German Aerospace Center
The German Aerospace Center is the national centre for aerospace, energy and transportation research of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has multiple locations throughout Germany. Its headquarters are located in Cologne. It is engaged in a wide range of research and development projects in...
(DLR) and the Institute of Planetary Research in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
(Ondřejov Observatory
Ondrejov Observatory
The Ondřejov Observatory is the principal observatory of the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It is located near the village of Ondřejov, 35 km southeast of Prague....
). It produces about 10,000 images per year documenting about 1200 hours of clear sky observations. Its cameras detect about 50 large meteors per year.
The most famous observation by the network is the fall of the Neuschwanstein meteorite
Neuschwanstein (meteorite)
Neuschwanstein was an enstatite chondrite meteorite that fell to Earth on 6 April 2002 at 22:20:18 GMT near Neuschwanstein Castle, Bavaria, at the Germany-Austria border....
in 6 April 2002. Detailed data obtained from several stations allowed accurate reconstruction not only of the meteor path in the Earth atmosphere, but also of its orbit around the Sun. The similarity of the reconstructed orbits of the Neuschwanstein and Příbram allowed associating these meteorites to the same parent body.