Abstract: A summary of the activity of the CAMS BeNeLux network during the month of September 2020 is presented. September 2020 counted many clear nights. 12997 multiple station meteors were recorded. A record number of 6132 orbits were collected during this month with a maximum of 90 cameras available at 24 locations.
1 Introduction
Previous years the month of September brought favorable weather circumstances combined with a rich meteor activity, although no major showers are active this time of the year. Nights are getting longer, about two hours more nighttime between begin of September and the end of the month. What did 2020 bring us?
2 September 2020 statistics
CAMS BeNeLux collected 12997 multi-station meteors (14826 in September 2019), good for 6132 orbits (4609 previous year). This is an absolute record for the month September. This month counted as many as 20 nights with more than 100 orbits (15 in 2019). The best September night was 18–19 with as many as 514 orbits in a single night, the best score in orbits ever for a September night. Four nights remained without any orbits (1 previous year). The statistics of September 2020 are compared in Figure 1 and Table 1 with the same month in previous years since the start of CAMS BeNeLux in 2012. In 9 years, 235 September nights allowed to obtain orbits with a grand total of 30145 orbits collected during September during all these years together.
The weather was very favorable in September 2020, but although the network had 1829 multi-station meteors less than in 2019, we got 1523 more orbits. September 2020 had 526 orbits more than the previous record month September 2018. This is thanks to the larger number of cameras that were operational compared to previous years. The northern part of the CAMS BeNeLux network suffered less good coverage as some of the CAMS stations were temporarily inactive or unable to contribute for various reasons.
The first three weeks of September had favorable weather, from September 24 onwards the BeNeLux got rather very poor weather with completely overcast sky.
The volume of atmosphere monitored by the CAMS BeNeLux cameras is huge. If all or most cameras are kept operational, most of the meteors registered will help to obtain an orbit. It is important to keep as many cameras operational as possible. This remains a challenge as technical failures cannot be ruled out. Some extra camera stations would be very welcome to reinforce the northern and entire western part of the network.
Figure 1 – Comparing September 2020 to previous months of September in the CAMS BeNeLux history. The blue bars represent the number of orbits, the red bars the maximum number of cameras running in a single night and the yellow bar the average number of cameras running per night.
Table 1 – September 2020 compared to previous months of September.
| Year | Nights | Orbits | Stations | Max. Cams | Min. Cams | Mean Cams |
| 2012 | 18 | 209 | 5 | 5 | – | 3.4 |
| 2013 | 19 | 712 | 9 | 20 | – | 13.7 |
| 2014 | 27 | 1293 | 14 | 32 | – | 22.0 |
| 2015 | 29 | 2763 | 15 | 46 | – | 30.0 |
| 2016 | 30 | 3982 | 19 | 54 | 32 | 46.5 |
| 2017 | 29 | 4839 | 22 | 83 | 47 | 70.2 |
| 2018 | 28 | 5606 | 20 | 80 | 57 | 65.4 |
| 2019 | 29 | 4609 | 20 | 79 | 64 | 72.3 |
| 2020 | 26 | 6132 | 24 | 90 | 52 | 76.2 |
| Total | 235 | 30145 |
3 Conclusion
September 2020 confirmed the reputation of this month with a very rich background meteor activity and favorable weather. It will be hard to improve the record number of orbits in the future.
Acknowledgment
Many thanks to all participants in the CAMS BeNeLux network for their dedicated efforts. The data on which this report is based has been taken from the CAMS website. The CAMS BeNeLux team was operated by the following volunteers during September 2020:
Hans Betlem (Leiden, Netherlands, CAMS 371, 372 and 373), Felix Bettonvil (Utrecht, Netherlands, CAMS 376 and 377), Jean-Marie Biets (Wilderen, Belgium, CAMS 379, 380, 381 and 382), Martin Breukers (Hengelo, Netherlands, CAMS 320, 321, 322, 323, 324, 325, 326 and 327, RMS 328 and 329), Guiseppe Canonaco (Genk, RMS 3815), Bart Dessoy (Zoersel, Belgium, CAMS 397, 398, 804, 805, 806 and 888), Jean-Paul Dumoulin, Dominique Guiot and Christian Walin (Grapfontaine, Belgium, CAMS 814 and 815, RMS 003814), Uwe Glässner (Langenfeld, Germany, RMS 3800), Luc Gobin (Mechelen, Belgium, CAMS 390, 391, 807 and 808), Tioga Gulon (Nancy, France, CAMS 3900 and 3901), Robert Haas (Alphen aan de Rijn, Netherlands, CAMS 3160, 3161, 3162, 3163, 3164, 3165, 3166 and 3167), Robert Haas (Texel, Netherlands, CAMS 810, 811, 812 and 813), Robert Haas / Edwin van Dijk (Burlage, Germany, CAMS 801, 802, 821 and 822), Kees Habraken (Kattendijke, Netherlands, RMS 000378), Klaas Jobse (Oostkapelle, Netherlands, CAMS 3030, 3031, 3032, 3033, 3034, 3035, 3036 and 3037), Carl Johannink (Gronau, Germany, CAMS 311, 314, 317, 318, 3000, 3001, 3002, 3003, 3004 and 3005), Hervé Lamy (Dourbes, Belgium, CAMS 394 and 395), Hervé Lamy (Humain Belgium, CAMS 816), Hervé Lamy (Ukkel, Belgium, CAMS 393), Koen Miskotte (Ermelo, Netherlands, CAMS 351, 352, 353 and 354), Tim Polfliet (Gent, Belgium, CAMS 396), Steve Rau (Zillebeke, Belgium, CAMS 3850 and 3852), Paul and Adriana Roggemans (Mechelen, Belgium, CAMS 383, 384, 388, 389, 399 and 809, RMS 003830 and 003831), Hans Schremmer (Niederkruechten, Germany, CAMS 803) and Erwin van Ballegoij (Heesch, Netherlands, CAMS 347 and 348).
