PRISMA

PRISMA

Prima Rete Italiana per la Sorveglianza sistematica di Meteore e Atmosfera – First Italian Network for Systematic Supervision of Meteors and Atmosphere

SHORT DESCRIPTION

PRISMA is a project started in 2016 that consists of an Italian network of all-sky cameras for the observation of bright meteors (fireballs and bolides), in order to determine the orbits of the objects that cause them and to delimit, with a good degree of approximation, the areas of possible fall of fragments in order to recover the meteorites.

Systematic monitoring of cloud cover and electrical activity will be used for the validation of weather models.

The systematically collected data will contribute to the refinement of the models of interaction of cosmic bodies with the atmosphere which to date still present many gaps due to the lack of quality observational data.

PRISMA is an open project involving researchers from the National Institute of Astrophysics and Universities, Amateur Astronomers Groups and regional and local Astronomical and Meteorological Observatories. Schools are also involved with an educational program and astronomy laboratories that aim to involve students and individual citizens in the project’s research activities, side by side with researchers. This aspect of the project is part of PRISMA-Edu, which is developed thanks also to the financial support of banking foundations.

PRISMA is part of the international project  FRIPONOpens in a new window (Fireball Recovery and InterPlanetary Observation Network).

ROLE OF THE OBSERVATORY

At the Merate (LC) site of our observatory, the project camera was positioned on a dome once used for observing the Sun.

Below is the link to see the live image captured by the camera in Merate: https://www.fripon.org/IMG/jpg/stations/RT_ITLO04.jpg

OBSERVATORY STAFF INVOLVED

• Stefano Basso – stefano.basso AT inaf.it
• Giacomo Bonnoli – giacomo.bonnoli AT inaf.it

TIMELINE

2016 –

WEBSITE

PRISMA

CREDITS

Web page content: S. Basso