Meteorrich

Meteorrich is a term used in meteor science and citizen science to describe datasets or observational results that exhibit a high density of meteor detections over a relatively short time period or within a constrained region of the sky. It is used to distinguish rich meteor activity from more typical, sparse observations and can refer both to real-time event detection and to curated post hoc compilations.

The term is a portmanteau of meteor and rich, and is believed to have arisen in online astronomy fora and collaborative data projects in the early 2010s as researchers discussed episodes with a large number of simultaneous or near-simultaneous meteor detections across multiple instruments.

Analysts use meteorrich datasets to study meteor flux, shower structure, and parent body activity. Data sources commonly include networks of all-sky cameras, photographic plates, radar detectors, and video meteor networks. Cross-instrument verification is standard to confirm genuine meteors and to reduce false positives from environmental noise or instrumental artefacts.

While meteorrich observations can reveal details about meteor streams and sporadic activity, they can also be biased by observational coverage and instrumentation sensitivity. Proper interpretation typically involves modeling detection efficiency, correcting for observational geometry, and corroborating events with observations from independent stations.

See also: meteor shower, all-sky camera network, radar meteor detection.