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Satellite signatures of a meteor in the Bering Sea

By Scott Bachmeier •

Himawari-8

Himawari-8 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

A meteor entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the Bering Sea (east of Kamchatka) on 18 December 2018. Himawari-8 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images (above) showed a bright streak at 23:50 UTC — and a dark-colored debris trail was also evident northwest of this bright streak, which subsequently drifted northeastward. Signatures of the meteor were also captured with the Terra satellite.

A warm thermal anomaly was apparent (at the southern end of the bright streak) on the 2350 UTC Himawari-8 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) image (below).

Himawari-8 "Red" Visible (0.64 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images at 2350 UTC [click to enlarge]

Himawari-8 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images at 2350 UTC [click to enlarge]

GOES-17 was only scanning the Full Disk at 15-minute intervals, so the initial bright meteor streak that was seen with Himawari-8  was not not captured; however, the dark meteor debris cloud drifting northeastward could be followed on Visible imagery (below).

GOES-17 "Red" Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play MP4 animation | MP4]

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

* GOES-17 images shown here are preliminary and non-operational *

Categories: GOES-17, Himawari-8