Context. Until recently, camera networks designed for monitoring fireballs worldwide were not fully automated, implying that in case of a meteorite fall, the recovery campaign was rarely immediate. This was an important limiting factor as the most fragile – hence precious – meteorites must be recovered rapidly to avoid their alteration. Aims. The Fireball Recovery and InterPlanetary Observation Network (FRIPON) scientific project was designed to overcome this limitation. This network comprises a fully automated camera and radio network deployed over a significant fraction of western Europe and a small fraction of Canada. As of today, it consists of 150 cameras and 25 European radio receivers and covers an area of about 1.5 × 106 km2. Methods. The FRIPON network, fully operational since 2018, has been monitoring meteoroid entries since 2016, thereby allowing the characterization of their dynamical and physical properties. In addition, the level of automation of the network makes it possible to trigger a meteorite recovery campaign only a few hours after it reaches the surface of the Earth. Recovery campaigns are only organized for meteorites with final masses estimated of at least 500 g, which is about one event per year in France. No recovery campaign is organized in the case of smaller final masses on the order of 50 to 100 g, which happens about three times a year; instead, the information is delivered to the local media so that it can reach the inhabitants living in the vicinity of the fall. Results. Nearly 4000 meteoroids have been detected so far and characterized by FRIPON. The distribution of their orbits appears to be bimodal, with a cometary population and a main belt population. Sporadic meteors amount to about 55% of all meteors. A first estimate of the absolute meteoroid flux (mag < –5; meteoroid size ≥~1 cm) amounts to 1250/yr/106 km2. This value is compatible with previous estimates. Finally, the first meteorite was recovered in Italy (Cavezzo, January 2020) thanks to the PRISMA network, a component of the FRIPON science project.
Nowadays, Quality Management tools such as failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) are widely used throughout the aeronautical, automotive, software, food services, health care and many other industries to sustain and improve quality and safety. The increasing complexity of scientific research makes it more difficult to maintain all activities under control, in order to guarantee validity and reproducibility of results. Even in non-regulated research, scientists need to be supported with management tools that maximize study performance and outcomes, while facilitating the research process. Frequently, steps that involve human intervention are the weak links in the process. Risk analysis therefore gives considerable benefit to analytical validation, assessing and avoiding failures due to human error, potential imprecision in applying protocols, uncertainty in equipment function and imperfect control of materials. This paper describes in detail how FMEA methodology can be applied as a performance improvement tool in the field of non-regulated research, specifically on a basic Life Sciences research process. We chose as "pilot process" the selection of oligonucleotide aptamers for therapeutic purposes, as an example of a complex and multi-step process, suitable for technology transfer. We applied FMEA methodology, seeking every opportunity for error and its impact on process output, and then, a set of improvement actions was generated covering most aspects of laboratory practice, such as equipment management and staff training. We also propose a useful tool supporting the risk assessment of research processes and its outputs and that we named "FMEA strip worksheet." These tools can help scientists working in non-regulated research to approach Quality Management and to perform risk evaluation of key scientific procedures and processes with the final aim to increase and better control efficiency and efficacy of their research.
Two meteorite pieces have been recovered in Italy, near the town of Cavezzo (Modena), on 4th January 2020. The associated fireball was observed on the evening of New Year’s Day 2020 by eight all-sky cameras of the PRISMA fireball network, a partner of FRIPON. The computed trajectory had an inclination angle of approximately 68○ and a velocity at infinity of 12.8 km s−1. Together with the relatively low terminal height, estimated as 21.5 km, those values were indicating the significant possibility of a meteorite dropping event, as additionally confirmed by the non zero residual total mass. The strewn-field was computed taking into account the presence of two bright light flashes, revealing that the meteoroid had been very likely subject to fragmentation. Three days after the event, two samples, weighing 3.1 g and 52.2 g, were collected as a result of a dedicated field search and thanks to the involvement of the local people. The two pieces were immediately recognised as freshly fallen fragments of meteorite. The computed orbital elements, compared with the ones of known Near-Earth Asteroids from the NEODyS database, are compatible with one asteroid only; 2013 VC10. The estimated original mass of the meteoroid, 3.5 kg, and size, approximately 13 cm, is so far the smallest among the current 35 cases in which meteorites were recovered from precise strewn-field computation thanks to observational data. This result demonstrates the effectiveness of accurate processing of fireball network data even on challenging events generated by small size meteoroids.
On May 30th, 2017 at about 21h 09m 17s UTC a green bright fireball crossed the sky of northeastern Italy. The fireball path was observed from some all-sky cameras starting from a mean altitude of 81.1 ± 0.2 km (Lat. 44.369 • ± 0.002 • N; Long. 11.859 • ± 0.002 • E) and extinct at 23.3 ± 0.2 km (Lat. 45.246 • ±0.002 • N; Long. 12.046 • ±0.002 • E), between the Italian cities of Venice and Padua. In this paper, on the basis of simple physical models, we will compute the atmospheric trajectory, analize the meteoroid atmospheric dynamics, the dark flight phase (with the strewn field) and compute the best heliocentric orbit of the progenitor body. Search for meteorites on the ground has not produced any results so far.PACS. PACS-key discribing text of that key -PACS-key discribing text of that key 5 www.astromatic.net/software 6 meteore.forumattivo.com 7 cmn.rgn.hr 8 sonotaco.com 9 tdc-www.harvard.edu/catalogs/sky2k.html
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