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OBSERVATION OF LUMINOUS TRANSIENT
PHENOMENA ON PLANETARY BODIES
MARIO DI MARTINO and ALBINO CARBOGNANI
INAF — Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino, 10025 Pino Torinese, Italy
dimartino@to.astro.it
In this paper, we review the possibility of space observations for the most
important luminous transient phenomena occurring on planetary bodies. The
construction of a breadboard of a CCD camera having a field of view of 120
◦
and a sensitivity able to detect events of visual magnitude +6, together with the
realization of the relative operation software, has been funded by the European
Space Agency (ESA). This project has been developed by the firm Galileo
Avionica S.p.A. (Campi Bisenzio, Italy). The estimated cost for such a space
qualified camera is estimated between 3 and 4 million US$. It could fly as
a piggy-back payload on a space platform and/or a constellation of satellites
conceived for different space missions.
1. Introduction
Transient luminous phenomena on planetary bodies are defined as events
of different intensities, which occur in planetary atmospheres and surfaces,
their duration spans from about 0.1 s to several days. They consist of mete-
ors, bolides, lightning, impact flashes on solid surfaces, auroras, etc. If well
monitored, they represent a very useful tool to study the smallest compo-
nent of meteoroids and the electric phenomena in planetary atmosphere.
At present only terrestrial transient phenomena are studied. However,
ongoing programs devoted to systematic meteor observation worldwide are
a few. In the USA only the Florida Fireball Patrol is still active, while
in Europe, since 1959, the European Fireball Network (EN) is working.
No information exist about extraterrestrial meteor occurring on the solar
system planets.
The earth-lightning detection from space it is not a novelty, but a sys-
tematic and global monitoring of extraterrestrial lightning has not been
carried out. So far, the study of these phenomena has been very limited,
due to the lack of an
ad hoc
instrumentation, and their detection has been
performed mainly on a serendipitous basis.
Recently, European Space Agency (ESA) has issued an announcement
of opportunity for the development of systems devoted to the systematic
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