The Global Meteor Network: A World-wide Effort in Meteor Science, Space Situational Awareness and the Atmospheric Environment: St. Louis Astronomical Society October 2026 Meeting

The Global Meteor Network is a citizen science project that has been running since 2018. It is now a collaboration across 45 countries in all 7 continents. Ground-based observations of atmospheric phenomena are valuable for a number of reasons including brightness measurements, trajectory determinations, and characterization of potential risk to the ground. What started as a way to detect and record meteor events around the world has now become a multi-use scientific instrument. It can also be used to contribute to our understanding of contrails (condensation trails formed by aircrafts that contribute to global warming) and space debris/satellite reentries.

Tam Do is a second year PhD student in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. She is working with the Western Meteor Physics Group and Space Surveillance Group under the supervision of Dr. Peter Brown. Her research focuses on the dynamical classification and observational characterization of low-velocity impactors, both natural meteoroids and artificial space debris re-entries.

The St. Louis Astronomical Society is an organization for individuals interested in astronomy and telescopes. The public is invited to attend its meetings, telescope observing sessions, and special events. For more information about Astronomical Society events, please visit www.slasonline.org.

Free parking will be available.

Header image: Tammy Do and Michael Mazur, Elginfield Observatory. From Western Alumni Magazine, “Watching the Skies.”