This repository holds digital resources associated with the article "Meteor candidate observations from automated weather camera sampling in VBA" [1]. That article discusses automated sampling of weather webcam imaging for meteor detection. The sampling system was developed in Excel, with the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) scripting language. Though introduced in the context of weather webcams, the system can be configured to sample from any webcam with a publicly-accessible URL handle.
- Key Files
- Software Requirements
- Quality Assurance
- Getting Started
- Acknowledgements
- References
- Citation
- License
| File | Notes |
|---|---|
src/automated-webcam-sampler.xlsm |
Macro-enabled Excel workbook. |
src/webcam-sampler.bas |
VBA module. |
The Excel workbook runs a custom automated webcam sampler. Its constituent
VBA module, webcam-sampler.bas, has also been provided as a separate file for
easy code review outside Excel.
| Software | Notes |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Excel |
Available here. Proprietary. Desktop app supported. Browser and mobile versions are unsupported. |
| Windows | Available here. Proprietary. |
The webcam sampler has been tested in the following environment.
Windows Test Environment
| Type | Component | Version |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Operating system | Windows 11, 26H2 (OS Build 26300.9550) |
| Software |
Microsoft Excel |
Microsoft Excel for Microsoft 365 MSO Version 2608, Build 16.0.20326.20072, 64-bit |
The file automated-webcam-sampler.xlsm should be opened in Excel.
Macro-enabled content must be active in Excel to sample webcams.
Additionally, Windows may block the document's macros. To resolve this, right click on the file to open Document Properties. Go to the General tab, Security section and select the Unblock checkbox.
The webcam sampler has default settings for target webcams, sampling cadence, sampling period, etc. These should be configured in VBA to meet your needs prior to executing the sampler.
There are two main ways to execute the sampler.
The single Excel worksheet features a "Take Samples" button at the top left of the worksheet that will execute the sampler.
The DownloadFileAPI function of the VBA code will execute webcam sampling. This can be triggered from Excel's VBA editor. The VBA editor can be opened by selecting Developer, Visual Basic from the Excel ribbon. If the Developer option isn't visible in the Excel ribbon, it can be added by selecting File, Options, Customize Ribbon from the Excel main menu. (Excel version 2608 menu options.)
Once webcam sampling is complete, downloaded files will be available on the
local file system at C:\webcam-samples.
This work used publicly-accessible infrastructure managed by the Australian government's Bureau of Meteorology and Airservices Australia.
Google Gemini [2] was used as an assistive tool to refine VBA code after initial human design, implementation and testing. Selected AI-generated validation code was adapted and incorporated into the system design. All other repository artifacts were created by the author.
-
T. N. Stenborg, "Meteor candidate observations from automated weather camera sampling in VBA", in Proc. International Meteor Conf., U. Pajer, J. Rendtel, M. Gyssens and C. Verbeeck, Eds., 2020, pp. 189–190.
View PDF SciX -
Google Gemini. (Large language model, September 2026 release). Google. [Online]. Available: google.com.
Citation details are available by clicking Cite this repository in the GitHub sidebar.
This repository is licensed under the BSD-3-Clause license. Details are available in the LICENSE file.