SAASST News

Tuesday, 02 February 2021 11:09

The Effect of Foggy Nights on the UAE Meteor Monitoring Network in January 2021

The UAE Meteor Monitoring Network started the year 2021 with a low-to-moderate detection number compared to the previous two years. The Sharjah tower observed 106 meteors, Al-Yahar 174, and Liwa 254, leading to 534 meteor detections for the whole month of January 2021.

Out of the total count, 68 were double detections and 4 triple detections, resulting in 462 single detections. Compared to 2020, the exact total was 1,032, while the double and triple detections were 206 and 21, respectively. The main reason behind the reduced number of detection is the weather conditions. The month of January was too foggy. The histogram below shows in detail the number of meteors per day for January 2021. For January, one of the major meteor showers is the Quadrantids. It was expected to be active during the period Jan. 02-05 with a zenith hourly rate of about 30 meteors.

 

 

The table below compares the observations for 2019, 2020, and 2021. Besides the Full Moon presence during a meteor shower, the number of meteors observed can be affected by the weather conditions being cloud or foggy. This can be noticed for Al-yahar and Liwa towers.