maximus otter
Recovering policeman
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Planetary scientists estimate that each year, about 500 meteorites survive the fiery trip through Earth’s atmosphere and fall to our planet’s surface. Most are quite small, and less than 2% of them are ever recovered. While the majority of rocks from space may not be recoverable due to ending up in oceans or remote, inaccessible areas, other meteorite falls are just not witnessed or known about.
An example of a small, freshly-fallen meteorite in situ, found and photographed by Geoffrey Notkin. This specimen is Ash Creek, an L6 stone meteorite, which fell on February 15, 2009 in McLennan County, Texas, following a bright daytime fireball. This was the first time Doppler radar was used to locate specimens. Photo © Geoffrey Notkin
But new technology has upped the number known falls in recent years. Doppler radar has detected meteorite falls, as well as all-sky camera networks specifically on the lookout for meteors. Additionally, increased use of dashcams and security cameras have allowed for more serendipitous sightings and data on fireballs and potential meteorite falls.
A team of researchers is now taking advantage of additional technology advances by testing out drones and machine learning for automated searches for small meteorites. The drones are programmed to fly a grid search pattern in a projected ‘strewn field’ for a recent meteorite fall, taking systematic pictures of the ground over a large survey area. Artificial intelligence is then used to search through the pictures to identify potential meteorites.
Citron and his colleagues have tested their conceptual drone setup several times, mostly recently in the area of a known 2019 meteorite fall near Walker Lake, Nevada. While this specific test revealed a number of false positives for rocks previously unidentified, the software was able to correctly identify test meteorites placed by the researchers on the dry lake bed.
A bright meteor caught by one of the Global Fireball Network’s cameras from the Rancho Mirage Observatory (Eric McLaughlin) on April 7, 2019. Credit: NASA Meteorite Tracking and Recovery Network.
Finding meteorites from an observed fall can be very difficult, since meteorites can be scattered over a wide area.
“Smaller falls are more frequent but deliver less meteorite fragments which are therefore harder to locate,” Citron said. “It takes approximately 100 man-hours to find one meteorite fragment, so if we can improve on that we can sample more of these small falls and get better insight into the orbits and therefore source regions of incoming meteors.”
https://www.universetoday.com/15165...ognize-and-hunt-down-meteorites-autonomously/
maximus otter
An example of a small, freshly-fallen meteorite in situ, found and photographed by Geoffrey Notkin. This specimen is Ash Creek, an L6 stone meteorite, which fell on February 15, 2009 in McLennan County, Texas, following a bright daytime fireball. This was the first time Doppler radar was used to locate specimens. Photo © Geoffrey Notkin
But new technology has upped the number known falls in recent years. Doppler radar has detected meteorite falls, as well as all-sky camera networks specifically on the lookout for meteors. Additionally, increased use of dashcams and security cameras have allowed for more serendipitous sightings and data on fireballs and potential meteorite falls.
A team of researchers is now taking advantage of additional technology advances by testing out drones and machine learning for automated searches for small meteorites. The drones are programmed to fly a grid search pattern in a projected ‘strewn field’ for a recent meteorite fall, taking systematic pictures of the ground over a large survey area. Artificial intelligence is then used to search through the pictures to identify potential meteorites.
Citron and his colleagues have tested their conceptual drone setup several times, mostly recently in the area of a known 2019 meteorite fall near Walker Lake, Nevada. While this specific test revealed a number of false positives for rocks previously unidentified, the software was able to correctly identify test meteorites placed by the researchers on the dry lake bed.
A bright meteor caught by one of the Global Fireball Network’s cameras from the Rancho Mirage Observatory (Eric McLaughlin) on April 7, 2019. Credit: NASA Meteorite Tracking and Recovery Network.
Finding meteorites from an observed fall can be very difficult, since meteorites can be scattered over a wide area.
“Smaller falls are more frequent but deliver less meteorite fragments which are therefore harder to locate,” Citron said. “It takes approximately 100 man-hours to find one meteorite fragment, so if we can improve on that we can sample more of these small falls and get better insight into the orbits and therefore source regions of incoming meteors.”
https://www.universetoday.com/15165...ognize-and-hunt-down-meteorites-autonomously/
maximus otter
