Marmo Chiara

Abstract Reference: 30820
Identifier: O6.1
Presentation: Oral communication
Key Theme: 2 Management of Scientific and Data Analysis Projects

The FRIPON project or Pride and Prejudice in Citizen Sciences

Authors:
Marmo Chiara, Colas François, Bouley Sylvain, Zanda Brigitte, Vaubaillon Jérémie, Vernazza Pierre, Gattacceca Jérôme, Rault Jean-Louis, Birlan Mirel, Maquet Lucie, Blanpain Cyrille, Caminade Stéphane, Lecubin Julien, Malgoyre Adrien, Steinhausser Asma, Kwon Min-Kyung, Audureau Yoan, Cochard François, Thizy Olivier

FRIPON (Fireball Recovery and InterPlanetary Observation Network, www.fripon.org) is a French project aiming to monitor the French skies 24 hours a day. FRIPON will detect meteors in order to estimate their orbit outside the atmosphere and to statistically determine possible parent bodies, but also their trajectory inside the atmosphere to discover possible meteorites originated by the fall. The link between them will enlighten us about the origin of the Solar System. A network of one hundred low-cost all-sky cameras is being installed all over France, coupled with radio receivers and spectroscopes. In addition to that, FRIPON will exploit data from other networks (sismographs, infrasound microbarometers) to increase chances of meteorite recovery and to improve the understanding of its properties. Data retrieving and analysis are automatized in order to minimize the time elapsed between the meteor detection and the meteorite field research. Furthermore, FRIPON data could be used in studies about cloud cover or light pollution. This presentation will sketch the organization of the project and the principal steps leading to the complete deployment of the network (by the end of 2016).

The project has been funded by the French ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche). It federates four research institutions but it is founded on the participation of a number of research laboratories, and of civilian and cultural associations. Astronomers, geologists and engineers work together with a rich and already independently structured amateurs community. FRIPON is a project where openness and transparency must cooperate with centralization and control, a good example of the delicate balance between outreach, unavoidable to inspire proud people involvement, and technical needs of scaling infrastructures aimed to produce rigorous science.