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Satellite Views of Meteor Vapor Trail Over Russia

February 15th, 2013 | Scott Lindstrom

FY-2D 0.73 µm Visible image

A Meteor entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the Ural Mountains of western Russia today at approximately 0320 UTC (09:20 AM local time). The visible image from just after sunrise, above, from the Chinese FY-2D satellite shows an east-west plume, likely from the meteor, near Chelyabinsk. Meteosat-9 also captured the event (YouTube | EUMETSAT), as did Meteosat-10.

Multi-channel animation of FY-2D imagery (courtesy of Tim Schmit, NOAA/NESDIS ASPB)

FY-2D has multiple channels. An animation of the visible (0.73 µm), near-infrared (3.8 µm), ‘water vapor’ (6.8 µm) and far-infrared (11.0 µm) is shown above. The signature of the meteor vapor trail is present in each of the channels. A before/after comparison (03:00 and 03:30 UTC) of FY-2D 0.73 µm visible, 3.8 µm shortwave IR, 6.8 µm water vapor, and 10.8 µm IR window channel images is shown below.

Before/after comparison of FY-2D 0.73 µm visible, 3.8 µm shortwave IR, 6.8 µm water vapor, and 10.8 µm IR window channel images

An oblique view using Visible (0.73 µm) images from the Japanese MTSAT-2 satellite (below) revealed that the stratospheric component of the meteor vapor trail could be seen for as long as 9 hours with the aid of illumination from the sun.

MTSAT-2 Visible (0.73 µm) images [click to play animation]

A comparison of MTSAT-2 Shortwave Infrared (3.75 µm), Infrared Window (10.8 µm) and Visible (0.73 µm) images (below) showed that the meteor vapor trail exhibited a warm (darker gray) signature on the Shortwave Infrared images, due to this channel’s sensitivity to reflected solar radiation — that signature was seen to disappear with the loss of daytime sunlight. Since the vapor trail was not a particularly dense cloud, it did not exhibit a distinct signature on the Infrared Window images; however, there was still a faint thermal signal due to the fact that the mean meteor trail infrared brightness temperature of around 242 K (-31 ºC) was significantly warmer than that of the background infrared brightness temperature of space (165 K or -108 ºC).

MTSAT-2 Shortwave Infrared (3.75 µm, top), Infrared Window (10.8 µm, middle) and Visible (0.73 µm, bottom) images [click to play animation]

(Added, October 2013: This event has been written up in a journal article: Link)

Posted in General interpretation, MTSAT, Other Satellites | 4 Comments »

4 Responses to “Satellite Views of Meteor Vapor Trail Over Russia”

1. Yasunri Miura, Dr. says:

   17 February 2013 at 4:16

   Nice images! Thank you

2. jumpjack says:

   18 February 2013 at 8:06

   SORRY, PLEAS DISREGARD PREVIOUS POST, HERE ARE RIGHT TIMES!! (08:00 PM was LOCAL time, not GMT).

   ——————————-

   Very good collecting job!
   I was also looking for satellite imagery of Cuba to see if actually a similar meteorite fell there, but I had no luck, maybe you’d do better.
   Unfortunately, it’s not sure the date/hour of the event: somebody say BEFORE Chelyabinsk’s one, others after…

   It should have happened around 01:00 GMT, but dates vary between 12 and 15 of february!
   http://jumpjack.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/meteoriti-a-chelyabinsk-russia-cuba-e-a-los-angeles/

   2013/02/12 01:00 AM GMT: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/16/russian-meteorite-sightings-cuba-california
   2013/02/13 01:00 AM GMT: http://www.mondoinformazione.com/notizie-estero/meteorite-cade-a-cuba/85970/
   2013/02/15 06:15 PM GMT: http://familysurvivalprotocol.com/2013/02/16/event-into-space-cuba-province-of-cienfuegos-rodas-area/

3. jumpjack says:

   18 February 2013 at 8:19

   INSAT-3A could also have some images of the event:
   http://www.imd.gov.in/section/satmet/dynamic/insat.htm

4. Mesas Plasticas says:

   29 January 2014 at 20:02

   Good work with this article! I just see now, but I was searching for good pictures for this Meteor for a long time. Thaks a lot!