Lauriston Trindade

This article presents the results of a study whose goal it was to develop a method to search for new showers. The method inputs are meteor orbits provided by data from video-monitoring networks. As a result, the method proved to be effective in providing a list of new potential showers. The method consists of five data-analysis and processing steps. This study and development provided an important tool for the search of new showers. Up to the present moment, the method enabled the identification of more than a hundred new potential showers.

One way to learn more about the space environment in the terrestrial neighborhood is studying the annual flow of meteors that reaches our planet. Long-lasting projects and surveys have been dedicated to observing the sky with the purpose of capturing meteors, and generating large databases that allow searching for patterns in the sporadic meteor background and the identification of meteors associated with large and minor meteor showers. Most of the projects, however, are located in the northern hemisphere, making it difficult to detect southern hemisphere meteor showers. Thus, in order to increase the representativeness of meteor observation in this area and to allow the search for new radiants, BRAMON—the Brazilian Meteor Observation Network—was created, aiming to be a meteor-monitoring network based in Brazil. This work presents the network and the development of its first data-mining tool, necessary for its operation and search for new meteor showers. Using algorithms dedicated t...

In February, 21st, 2018, around 01:27 (UT), inhabitants from the oceanfront cities of the states of Bahia, Sergipe and Alagoas observed a very bright fireball. Using four videos obtained with security cameras installed in metropolitan region of Salvador (Bahia) and in a car near Aracaju (Sergipe), it was possible determined the fireball trajectory. With a velocity of 15.94 km/s, the fireball exploded at 21 km of altitude, about 134 km ESE from the coast of the city of Salvador. The energy released was estimated in 8.5 × 10−3 kt of TNT, corresponding to a pre-atmospheric mass between 700 kg and 1100 kg. The meteoroid diameter was estimated between 0.7 m and 0.85 m. Applying the D-criterion in the estimate heliocentric orbit, we suggested that it was a sporadic meteor. Resumo. Em 21 de Fevereiro de 2018, cerca de 01:27 (UT), habitantes das cidades costerias dos estados da Bahia, Sergipe e Alagoas observaram um brilhante fireball. Usando quatro vídeos obtidos de câmeras de segurança in...