FOIA: Direct Measurements of Interplanetary Magnetic Field and Plasma

VELA_SATELLITES_DOC_1.pdf
Direct Measurements of Interplanetary Magnetic Field and Plasma
The report 'Measurements of Interplanetary Magnetic Field and Plasma' describes the current understand of the solar plasma, corona and wind as collected by various satellites.
Document date: 1967-06-01
Department: Lab for Space Sciences, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD.
Author: Norman F. Ness
Document type: report
pages: 50


Archivist's Notes: A good quality document. No hand written marks.

This document contains a report by Norman F. Ness on the successful research detecting the solar wind and analyzing what it’s made of. The report was to be given at a symposium by the author who is very well known in the field. His greatest achievement was mapping out the Heliospheric Current Sheet.

The report describes how data from space probes and satellites including the Vela satellites was used to measure the solar wind. I imagine the report was documented because it was probably given as supporting information on the Vela satellite after the Vela Incident, in which it detected a suspected atmospheric nuclear detonation in the Indian Ocean, south of Africa, on September 22, 1979.

The Vela satellite program was originally designed to detect nuclear blasts and used to verify the nuclear test ban treaty. The same instruments that are used to detect a nuclear blast were also used to measure the solar wind in this case. The Vela satellite program was also the first to detect a gamma ray burst, which was a huge discovery in the field of astronomy.

The report is highly technical and detailed and an excellent read if you are interested in astronomy like myself. There is not much more information about the satellite other than that it contributed to this scientific research. There is a list of other space probes and satellites that also contributed on page 24.

Related FOIA Documents:
FOIA: Electron and Proton Fluxes in the Tail of the Magnetosphere
FOIA: Defense Technical Intelligence Report for the 22 Sep 1979 Vela Satellite event
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

[edit on 11/26/2007 by Hal9000]

I appreciate your scientific overview Hal9000 – nothing much to add…..

As I’m looking at the issues/teething problems of the Vela Satellite I would like to add the following…
taken from PDF page 21 document page 19…

……………..The intrinsic difficulties in the measurements of the electron
component of the plasma are due to the modifications present when the
spacecraft itself is imbedded within the plasma.

It may be sometime before "hard" experimental results are obtained on this important element of the solar plasma.

Definitive studies of plasma stability and wave propagation will not be conducted until the distribution function for the electrons is as well known as that for the position ion component.....


[edit on 1-12-2007 by frozen_snowman]