An overview of the radio observations during August 2020 is given.
The graphs show both the daily totals (Figure 1) and the hourly numbers (Figure 2) of “all” reflections counted automatically, and of manually counted “overdense” reflections, overdense reflections longer than 10 seconds and longer than 1 minute, as observed here at Kampenhout (BE) on the frequency of our VVS-beacon (49.99 MHz) during the month of August 2020.
The hourly numbers, for echoes shorter than 1 minute, are weighted averages derived from:
Local interference remained moderate during most of the month, but unidentified noise and especially strong lightning activity during the period 9th-18th of August complicated the automatic counting of “all” reflections. Most automatic counting problems were addressed manually, sometimes by comparing the registrations on 49.99 MHz to those obtained on 49.97 MHz (beacon located at Dourbes/BE and operated by the BRAMS group, part of the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy).
Eye-catchers of the month were of course the Perseids (PER) which were quite surprising by showing their main peak on August 13th, but with also strong overdense activity on the 12th and 14th, after a period of increasing activity. As expected the PER-activity quickly decreased after the 14th. Several other minor showers showed up, with several very strong and long-lasting overdense reflections during the period 23th-27th of August.
This month 52 reflections longer than 1 minute were observed here. A selection of these, together with some other interesting reflections has been included (Figures 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26).
If you are interested in the actual figures, or in plots showing the observations as related to the solar longitude (J2000) rather than to the calendar date. I can send you the underlying Excel files and/or plots. Please send me an e-mail: felix.verbelen at skynet.be.