Radio meteor scatter is an ideal technique for observing meteors continuously. Meteor trails can reflect radio waves from distant transmitters back to Earth, so when a meteor appears one can sometimes receive small portions of broadcasts from radio stations up to 2000 km away from the observing site.
The technique is strongly growing in popularity amongst meteor amateur astronomers. In the recent years, some groups started automating the radio observations, by monitoring the signal from the radio receiver with a computer. Even with these performant systems, the interpretation of the observations is difficult. A good understanding of the phenomenon is mandatory.
Though the theoretical study of the phenomena of forward scatter observations has not yet resulted in a reliable reduction method for amateur observations, major strides were taken during the Radio Meteor School in September 2005, in which Oleg Belkovich explained his approach to the problem to a small group of very devoted forward scatter observers. The Proceedings of the Radio Meteor School 2005 are an extremely valuable resource for everyone trying to maximize the scientific results of his/her forward scatter or backscatter observations.
The IMO’s Radio Commission works together with the European Radio Astronomy Club (ERAC).