Cameras for All-Sky Meteor Surveillance
CAMS (Cameras for All-Sky Meteor Surveillance) is a NASA-sponsored international project that uses networks of low-light video cameras to track and triangulate meteors, with data processing housed at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute. By calculating the direction and speed of each meteor streak, scientists determine its orbit in space to identify its parent body, helping to validate the official list of meteor showers, discover new ones, and predict future activity. Initiated with camera stations in California in October 2010 and April 2011, CAMS has since expanded to 15 networks worldwide—spanning the US, BeNeLux, UAE, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Namibia, Brazil, and Chile—using software written by Peter S. Gural. A standout early achievement was the February 2011 detection of the February Eta Draconids (FEDs), a new shower from a still-undiscovered long-period comet, and as of February 2021, CAMS had helped establish 92 out of 112 single showers. In April 2021, researchers linked 14–20 known long-period comets to specific showers, and in September 2021, CAMS networks in New Zealand and Chile captured a predicted outburst of Arids meteors from comet 15P/Finlay, while other networks recorded an enhanced Perseid outburst. These observations refine comet orbits and prove the existence of previously unknown comets, significantly advancing our understanding of meteor showers and their origins.
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