Abstract: A summary of the activity of the CAMS-BeNeLux network during the month of March 2023 is presented. This month was good for 4472 multi-station meteors resulting in 1328 orbits, a small number for the month of March.
Introduction
Meteor activity is now reaching the lowest level for northern latitudes in March. Contrary to 2022, this month wasn’t very sunny. This resulted in a less than usual number of orbits.
March 2023 statistics
When we look at the mean daytime temperatures, March was very normal. But the night temperatures were nearly two degrees higher than normal.
That means we often suffered cloudy conditions at night this month. Indeed, in six nights not a single orbit was obtained from our data. In another five nights we have collected less than 10 orbits per night. Only three nights with more than 100 orbits occurred this month with as a result, a very small monthly total for our network, even for a month with low meteor activity.
CAMS-BeNeLux collected 4472 multi-station meteors this month, resulting in a total of 1328 orbits. 54% of all orbits were captured by more than two stations.
Figure 1 – Comparing March 2023 to previous months of March in the CAMS-BeNeLux history. The blue bars represent the number of orbits, the red bars the maximum number of cameras capturing in a single night, the green bars the average number of cameras capturing per night and the yellow bars the minimum number of cameras.
On average 95.0 cameras were active during the nights this month. This number is much higher than last year (70.6), since the number of stations increased significantly in the last few months.
At least 80 cameras were active every night. This number makes it even clearer that stations were very often clouded for at least a part of the night.
Table 1 – Number of orbits and active cameras in the BeNeLux during the month of March in the period 2012–2023.
| Year | Nights | Orbits | Stations | Max. Cams | Min. Cams | Mean Cams |
| 2012 | 2 | 12 | 2 | 2 | – | 2.0 |
| 2013 | 10 | 69 | 6 | 7 | – | 4.2 |
| 2014 | 24 | 793 | 12 | 29 | – | 22.8 |
| 2015 | 23 | 1033 | 14 | 42 | – | 31.7 |
| 2016 | 23 | 856 | 16 | 51 | 12 | 38.2 |
| 2017 | 26 | 1048 | 19 | 55 | 20 | 44.4 |
| 2018 | 25 | 1280 | 22 | 91 | 53 | 73.5 |
| 2019 | 29 | 1215 | 20 | 78 | 54 | 64.4 |
| 2020 | 27 | 3026 | 25 | 93 | 66 | 81.7 |
| 2021 | 28 | 1998 | 27 | 91 | 59 | 78.9 |
| 2022 | 29 | 3189 | 24 | 79 | 58 | 70.6 |
| 2023 | 25 | 1328 | 37 | 103 | 80 | 95.0 |
| Total | 271 | 15847 |
Conclusion
The results for March 2023 are rather poor compared to the results in recent years.
Acknowledgment
Many thanks to all participants in the CAMS-BeNeLux network for their dedicated efforts. The CAMS-BeNeLux team was operated by the following volunteers during the month of March 2023:
Hans Betlem (Woold, Netherlands, Watec 3071, 3072, 3073, 3074, 3075, 3076, 3077 and 3078), Felix Bettonvil (Utrecht, Netherlands, Watec 376), Jean-Marie Biets (Wilderen, Belgium, Watec 379, 380 and 381), Ludger Boergerding (Holdorf, Germany, RMS 3801), Günther Boerjan (Assenede, Belgium, RMS 3823), Martin Breukers (Hengelo, Netherlands, Watec 320, 321, 322, 323, 324, 325, 326 and 327, RMS 319, 328 and 329), Seppe Canonaco (Genk, RMS 3818 and 3819), Pierre de Ponthiere (Lesve, Belgium, RMS 3816 and 3826), Bart Dessoy (Zoersel, Belgium, Watec 804, 805 and 806), Tammo Jan Dijkema (Dwingeloo, Netherlands, RMS 3199), Isabelle Ansseau, Jean-Paul Dumoulin, Dominique Guiot and Christian Wanlin (Grapfontaine, Belgium, Watec 814 and 815, RMS 3814 and 3817), Uwe Glässner (Langenfeld, Germany, RMS 3800), Luc Gobin (Mechelen, Belgium, Watec 3890, 3891, 3892 and 3893), Tioga Gulon (Nancy, France, Watec 3900 and 3901), Robert Haas (Alphen aan de Rijn, Netherlands, Watec 3160, 3161, 3162, 3163, 3164, 3165, 3166 and 3167), Robert Haas (Texel, Netherlands, Watec 811), Kees Habraken (Kattendijke, Netherlands, RMS 3780 and 3781), Klaas Jobse (Oostkapelle, Netherlands, Watec 3030, 3031, 3032, 3033, 3034, 3035, 3036 and 3037), Carl Johannink (Gronau, Germany, Watec 3100, 3101, 3102), Reinhard Kühn (Flatzby, Germany, RMS 3802), Hervé Lamy (Dourbes, Belgium, Watec 395, RMS 3825 and 3841), Hervé Lamy (Humain, Belgium, RMS 3821 and 3828), Hervé Lamy (Ukkel, Belgium, Watec 393 and 817), Hartmut Leiting (Solingen, Germany, RMS 3806), Koen Miskotte (Ermelo, Netherlands, Watec 3051, 3052 and 3053), Pierre-Yves Péchart (Hagnicourt, France, RMS 3902, 3903, 3904 and 3905), Eduardo Fernandez del Peloso (Ludwigshafen, Germany, RMS 3805), Tim Polfliet (Gent, Belgium, Watec 396, RMS 3820 and 3840), Steve Rau (Oostende, Belgium, RMS 3822), Steve Rau (Zillebeke, Belgium, Watec 3850 and 3852, RMS 3851 and 3853), Martin Richmond-Hardy (Kirton, England, RMS 3701), Paul and Adriana Roggemans (Mechelen, Belgium, RMS 3830 and 3831, Watec 3832, 3833, 3834, 3835, 3836 and 3837), Jim Rowe (Eastbourne, Great Britain, RMS 3829), Philippe Schaack (Roodt-sur-Syre, Luxemburg, RMS 3952), Hans Schremmer (Niederkruechten, Germany, Watec 803), Jan Thoemel (Luxemburg, Luxemburg, Watec 3950), Erwin van Ballegoij (Heesh, Netherlands Watec 3148 and 3149), Andy Washington (Clapton, England, RMS 3702).
