Astronomy & Astrophysics 585, A90 (2016)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201526680

A catalog of video records of the 2013 Chelyabinsk superbolide*

J. Borovička¹, L. Shrbený¹, P. Kalenda², N. Loskutov³, P. Brown⁴, P. Spurný¹, W. Cooke⁵, R. Blaauw⁶, D. E. Moser⁷, and A. Kingery⁸

¹Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 25165 Ondřejov, Czech Republic
²Institute of Rock Structure and Mechanics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, V Holešovičkách 41, 18209 Praha 8, Czech Republic
³OOO “RC PLINOR”, Shushary, Pushkinskaya 12, 196626 Saint Petersburg, Russia
⁴Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada
⁵Meteoroid Environments Office, EV44, Space Environment Team, Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama 35812, USA
⁶All points/Jacobs ESSSA Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama 35812, USA
⁷Jacobs/Jacobs ESSSA Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama 35812, USA
⁸ERC Incorporated/Jacobs ESSSA Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama 35812, USA

Abstract. The Chelyabinsk superbolide of February 15, 2013, was caused by the atmospheric entry of a ~19 m asteroid with a kinetic energy of 500 kT TNT just south of the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia. It was a rare event; impacts of similar energy occur on the Earth only a few times per century. Impacts of this energy near such a large urban area are expected only a few times per 10 000 years. A number of video records obtained by casual eyewitnesses, dashboard cameras in cars, security, and traffic cameras were made publicly available by their authors on the Internet. These represent a rich repository for future scientific studies of this unique event. To aid researchers in the archival study of this airburst, we provide and document a catalog of 960 videos showing various aspects of the event. Among the video records are 400 distinct videos showing the bolide itself and 108 videos showing the illumination caused by the bolide. Other videos show the dust trail left in the atmosphere, the arrival of the blast wave on the ground, or the damage caused by the blast wave. As these video recordings have high scientific, historical, and archival value for future studies of this airburst, a systematic documentation and description of records is desirable. Many have already been used for scientific analyses. We give the exact locations where 715 videos were taken as well as details of the visible/audible phenomena in each video recording. An online version of the published catalog has been developed and will be regularly updated to provide a long–term database for investigators.

Key words. meteorites, meteors, meteoroids

*An online version of the catalog is available at http://meteor.asu.cas.cz/Chelyabinsk/

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