The IAU Meteor Data Center (MDC) operates at the Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, under the auspices of Division F (Planetary Systems and Bioastronomy) of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The MDC consists of two main parts, the Shower Database, which serves as a central list of all meteor showers, and the Orbital Database, which functions as a central depository for catalogs of meteoroid orbits.
The MDC is responsible for:
The Shower Database collects reports of new sets of parameters for both newly discovered and previously known meteor showers submitted to the MDC by discoverers and observers. After submission, all new meteor showers are added to the MDC Working List. If a shower is confirmed and its parameters (radiant coordinates, velocity, and orbit) are well determined, the shower will be considered for established status. An established shower will receive its official name at the next IAU general assemblies. The shower is then moved to the MDC List of Established Showers. If a shower or its solution is subject to uncertainty, it is moved to the List of Removed Showers. In the case of re-confirmation, it can be moved back to the Working List. In order to move showers between individual lists, objective criteria have been established. List of All Showers contains all showers that are registered in the MDC Shower database, except for those that are in the List of Removed showers. The Shower Database also contains information on the parent bodies proposed in the scientific literature for meteoroid streams collected in the MDC.
Since its beginning, the IAU MDC database has been maintained on an unpaid voluntary basis.
Whenever using data of the IAU MDC shower database, please, refer to References.