EU-ESA Workshop on Meteor Observations for Planetary Defence

Session

Atmospheric entry, physical properties and impact consequences

5 Nov 2026, 09:00

Petralia Sottana, Sicily

18. Automated Meteor Impact Classification for Planetary Defence

Maria Gritsevich (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC))

05/11/2026, 11:00

Meteor observation networks are generating increasingly large,
precise, and geographically distributed datasets of meteoroid
atmospheric entries. These observations offer an opportunity to move
beyond detection and trajectory reconstruction towards automated
physical characterisation and classification of incoming bodies. The
α–β method (Gritsevich 2009) provides a physically...

6. From discovery to disruption: reconstructing the journey of asteroid 2023 CX1

Auriane Egal (Planétarium de Montréal, Espace pour la Vie, Montreal, Quebec, Canada)

05/11/2026, 11:25

On February 13, 2023, asteroid 2023 CX1 entered Earth's atmosphere over the English Channel, approximately seven hours after its discovery. The event produced a bright fireball observed across western Europe and led to the recovery of the Saint-Pierre-le-Viger meteorites in Normandy, France. This rare combination of pre-impact observations, atmospheric measurements, and laboratory analyses...

1. From orbit to ground: pre-impact meteorite strewn field predictions for imminent impactors and meteorite recovery.

Anna Moscati

05/11/2026, 11:50

The flux of meteoroids reaching the Earth is continuous, ranging from microscopic
grains to occasional metre and decametre scale bodies. The smallest ones fully ablate in the upper atmosphere, whereas sufficiently large or strong objects survive entry and deposit fragments on the ground as meteorites. Predicting where these fragments land, and reconstructing the atmospheric trajectory and...

32. Open Discussions

05/11/2026, 12:15

3. From natural hazards to artificial ones: tracking and characterising space debris re-entries using seismic data

Benjamin Fernando (University College London)

05/11/2026, 14:00

Many of the tools used to track meteoroids entering the atmosphere can be adapted to characterise the highly complex re-entries of artificial spacecraft which are now entering the atmosphere multiple times per day; with each posing a risk to life and infrastructure both in the air and on the ground. In this talk I will show how seismic data enable us to reconstruct the trajectory of debris...

34. Meteorite Fall Detection, Analysis, and Rapid Recovery using U.S. Weather Radars

Marc Fries

05/11/2026, 14:25

Weather radars have proven to be one of the most useful tools available for meteorite fall detection and analysis. This talk will describe the use of weather radars in the U.S. national weather radar network (NEXRAD) and smaller airport radars (TDWR) for detection and analysis of meteorite falls. To date, approximately 60 distinct meteorite falls have been identified using these systems using...

33. Open discussions

05/11/2026, 14:50

26. Technologies using bolide shockwaves to infer impactor characteristics: science opportunities, strengths and weaknesses.

Peter Brown

05/11/2026, 15:00

35. When Asteroids Meet Earth: From Tunguska to Modern Planetary Defense

Elizabeth Silber

Atmospheric impacts pose a significant hazard even when an incoming object disintegrates before reaching Earth's surface. Historical events, including the 1908 Tunguska airburst and the 2013 Chelyabinsk superbolide, demonstrate the destructive potential of atmospheric shock waves and the importance of understanding how incoming asteroids deposit their kinetic energy. During hypersonic entry,...