FOIA: Los Alamos report - Vela Event Alert 747 - LA-8364-MS

LA_8364_MS_MAY_1980.pdf
Los Alamos report - Vela Event Alert 747 - LA-8364-MS
Analysis of the Vela event alert 747. Informal report with scientific discussion on the event which is a suspected nuclear test.
Document date: 1980-05-01
Department: Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, DOE
Author: Henry G. Horak
Document type: report
pages: 27


Archivist's Notes: Fair to good quality document. 'Secret' mark crossed out and marked Unclassified. Some white out and redacted pages. Reference list and external distribution list.

This heavily redacted document contains the analysis from the Energy Dept. of the data collected by the Vela Satellite when it was triggered by a suspected atmospheric nuclear detonation in the Indian Ocean, south of Africa, on September 22, 1979, known as the Vela Incident.

The first section describes the coverage of the satellite and why other satellites may not have picked up the light flash. One page shows the light sensitivity curve graph of the photodiodes.

The conclusion was that the data shows a double peak light flash that supports the detection of a nuclear detonation. Also stated is that the two bhangmeters were recently calibrated and found to be in good working condition.

There are surviving appendixes acknowledgments, and references, but all of the information thet lead to the conclusion has been removed. This is most likely to keep the capabilities from becoming public knowledge.

Related FOIA Documents:
FOIA: Security Council discussion paper for Jan 7, 1980 meeting
FOIA: DCIA memo on the Sep 22, 1979 Vela Satellite event recording a suspected nuclear test
FOIA: Sandia Laboratories report on the Sep 22, 1979 Vela satellite event - Alert 747
FOIA: A report by a panel of non-government scientists on the Sep 22, 1979 Vela satellite event

Related Links:
Wikipedia article on the Vela Incident

Thanks Hal9000 – just an observation - you mentioned PDF page 4 :

Originally posted by Hal9000
Also stated is that the two bhangmeters were recently calibrated and found to be in good working condition.

Mom's the word

Quote PDF page 16:
In order to produce a reasonable theoretical model for Alert 747, it was necessary to carry out an extensive series of one-dimensional radiation-hyrodynamic calculations using the program RADFLO

With this in mind I would like move the focus from the vela satellite back to the ground and have a look at the Network stations that evaluate the Vela information. A very interesting read is the RADFLO HISTORY:

A vintage 1979 version of RADFLO was used for the Vela Alert-747 computations and later described in a RADFLO User’s Manual (Horak 1980; Jones etal. 1987; Horak and Kodis 1983). A more modern version of RADFLO is embodied within the code HYCHEM, which includes the nonequilibrium chemistry..........

With this I just like to link this report: FOIA: Vela Network Evaluation and Automatic Processing Research – seismology - this report was taken in consideration with the Vela 747 investigation.
In the above link on PDF page 17 we find that this project was in it’s “early years” and clearly pointed out that the stations on the ground had encounterd lots of problems i.e system malfunction.

With looking deeper into the wonderful world of the Vela Incident:
I really wonder which part of the vela network system was faulty – the vela satellite or the stations on the ground (computer glitch), or both ?


[edit on 29-11-2007 by frozen_snowman]