Originally posted by ULTIMA1
My question is why NASA's U-2 with an AVIRIS (Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer) made four flights over the WTC after the towers were
down and picked up temperatures up to 1300 degress in 3 dozen places in the debris field.
Why the time and expense to use a special U-2 ?
The Environmental Protection Agency requested it, through the USGS who went to NASA for the AVIRIS request:
(Both "externals" below are from:
www.911ea.org...)
Scientists rush to Manhattan
Like the rest of the world, the USGS team watched the storm of dust roll across Manhattan after the terrorist attack on Sept. 11. With its world-class
laboratories and sensors that can detect minerals on a distant planet, the Denver-based team was already making arrangements to get NASA's infrared
sensors and aircraft over ground zero as the EPA and the U.S. Public Health Service requested its help.
Responding to requests from the White House science office, the NASA team flew over Manhattan four times between Sept. 16 and Sept. 23, while USGS
scientists collected samples of the dust from 35 locations below.
See, AVIRIS can determine much more than temperature from the infrared signatures it reads:
Part of that technology was a remote-sensing unit designed for use in exploring planets, called Airborne Visible Infrared Spectrometer. AVIRIS,
the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, reads the infrared signatures of minerals reflected from the ground into its sensors. Then, they are compared with
the unique peaks and curves -- similar to a fingerprint -- of the signatures of thousands of minerals and materials in the Geological Survey's vast
database.
The EPA wanted to know what contaminants were in the huge clouds of dust settling over Manahattan.
The above-linked website source has it's own version of a conspiracy theory, one I might add that is far more believable that Dr. Jones'. They
maintain that the EPA was aware of severe contamination in the dust, but said nothing to protect various entities from liability.
Here's a link to what the USGS says about the AVIRIS and the overflights they requested from NASA:
pubs.usgs.gov...
That site includes the thermal images.
Coincidentally, I was wondering where you got your "1300 degrees" figure, considering that the USGS says " Analysis of the data indicates
temperatures greater than 800 (deg.)F."
Originally posted by Slap Nuts
So you conceede that the investigation WAS expedited for financial and other reasons?
Of course it was "expedited." Like I said, imagine the cost. Do you think that anyone would claim it was purposefully
slowed?
However, even expedited, there was more than enough time for collection of any amount of any kind of samples, and such samples were, of course,
taken.
Originally posted by MasisoarBecause then it becomes an importance as to why it fell. Since it poses such a great threat to future
business/skyscrapers around the world, it would be very beneficial for safety reasons to be able to loan out steel from those important areas for
further study by other architectual and building companies/contractors.
However, it was solely up to FEMA and the NIST to study the steel and make the best possible "speculated" view as to why it fell, with steel being
kept locked up afterwards or sent off.
FEMA's job was in regard to the emergency response to the disaster. As such, they only address the collapse of these buildings in that light. It is
the NIST that exists for the purpose of establishing engineering standards. Regardless of the lack of trust coming from the fringe element concerning
any government-established agency at all, the NIST's very reason for existence is exactly what you describe. If we were to send out "...steel...for
further study by other architectural and building companies..." then what is the purpose of even having an NIST in the first place? Architectural
firms and contractors are not equipped to do this sort of study - providing them with samples to examine would most likely have resulted in these
private entities sending the samples to the NIST themselves! That is what
they do when they need this kind of analysis.
Besides that, imagine the screams of the conspiracists had
private corporations been the ultimate arbiters of the reasons for the collapse.
What a "good ole boy" network
that would create!
Harte
Edit - typo and fix quotes
[edit on 6/8/2006 by Harte]
