NASA scientists were able to detect Chelyabinsk meteor dust using the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite, also proving the atmospheric model used to predict the bolide plume evolution through the Earth’s entire stratosphere.

“We wanted to know if our satellite could detect the meteor dust,” said Nick Gorkavyi, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who led the study, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. “Indeed, we saw the formation of a new dust belt in Earth’s stratosphere, and achieved the first space-based observation of the long-term evolution of a bolide plume.”

Below, the video shows how accurately the model prediction coincided with the satellite observations (Courtesy of NASA).

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