The development of technology, many years of experience, knowledge and a long tradition of observing meteors in Croatia resulted in forming of the Croatian Meteor Network (CMN).
Technological breakthrough in camera technology, successful testing of different types of cameras in Pula and setting up of a geophysical station for researching impacts of meteor showers on the ionosphere at Tičan, has led to the only one possible solution – formation of a network of cameras with the goal to record meteors.
The development of Croatian Meteor Network began in 2007. It is a joint project of the Astronomical Society “Istria” in Pula and the Science and Education Center Višnjan.
The technological bases of CMN are common personal computers with a video card and sensitive cameras for video surveillance. With a total cost of less than ~300 € per station, these systems are relatively inexpensive, accessible to almost everyone, which is an important requirement for a rapid expansion of the network. Beside the hardware tools for recording, important segments of CMN are the software tools for processing and analyzing the data, mainly self-written by members of the Croatian Meteor Network.
Currently, CMN has more than 30 cameras in operation, installed in both, schools and scientific-educational centers and in private homes in Croatia, but also in neighboring countries. Multiple overlapping fields of view of the cameras allow precise analysis of the meteor trajectories, which is the basis for calculating of possible meteorite falling sites. A great verification of the efficiency of the system was the Križevci meteorite, which felt in the night of 4th to 5th of February 2011, and was found as a result of calculating its trajectories using data collected by five CMN cameras.
So far, the Croatian Meteor Network recorded and processed over 250,000 meteors. Just one small part of the results was published until now. The most important results of CMN will follow in the near future.
The Croatian Meteor Network counts over 50 members from Croatia, but it has established also cooperation with international experts of meteor science, and already published several scientific papers in joint cooperation.
For more information about the Croatian Meteor Network, please visit: http://cmn.rgn.hr/