PRISMA, Italian network for meteors and atmospheric studies

Abstract

The aim of the PRISMA project is to develop the Italian participation in a network of European observing facilities whose primary targets are bright meteors (the so-called bolides and fireballs) and the recovery of meteorites. Several all-sky cameras have been recently installed in France (FRIPON project), and we propose to do the same in Italy, interconnecting the Italian network with the French one. Such a network is of great interest for the studies of interplanetary bodies and the dynamical and physical evolution of the population of small bodies of the Solar System and for the studies of collected meteorites. Those eventually recovered will be classified and investigated from the petrologic, genetic and evolutionary points of view, analyzed for their spectral characteristics and compared with known asteroids. The possibility to measure the radioactivity of samples shortly after the fall using gamma-ray spectrometers available in the Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino laboratories, will allow us to reveal the presence of short-lived cosmogenic radioisotopes. PRISMA is also very suitable for the purposes of atmospheric studies. This includes the statistics of cloud coverage and lightning frequencies, as well as the comparison of the optical depth measured using satellites and PRISMA cameras.