Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson Received: from po5.andrew.cmu.edu via trymail for +dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/space.dl@andrew.cmu.edu (->+dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/space.dl) (->ota+space.digests) ID ; Fri, 29 Mar 91 06:18:26 -0500 (EST) Received: from po2.andrew.cmu.edu via qmail ID ; Fri, 29 Mar 91 06:17:47 -0500 (EST) Received: from po5.andrew.cmu.edu via qmail ID ; Fri, 29 Mar 91 02:10:03 -0500 (EST) Received: from hogtown.andrew.cmu.edu via qmail ID ; Fri, 29 Mar 91 02:08:52 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Fri, 29 Mar 91 02:08:46 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #319 SPACE Digest Volume 13 : Issue 319 Today's Topics: MAJOR SOLAR FLARE ALERT #2 - 22 MARCH - HIGH IMPACTS POSSIBLE Commercial Space news (1 of 4) Re: MAJOR SOLAR FLARE ALERT (weather reactions?) Magellan Images Administrivia: Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to space+@andrew.cmu.edu. Other mail, esp. [un]subscription requests, should be sent to space-request+@andrew.cmu.edu, or, if urgent, to tm2b+@andrew.cmu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 23 Mar 91 01:33:22 MST From: oler%HG.ULeth.CA@BITNET.CC.CMU.EDU (CARY OLER) Subject: MAJOR SOLAR FLARE ALERT #2 - 22 MARCH - HIGH IMPACTS POSSIBLE X-St-Vmsmail-To: st%"space+@andrew.cmu.edu" -- MAJOR SOLAR FLARE ALERT -- MARCH 22, 1991 Alert #2 Flare Event Summary ** HIGH TERRESTRIAL IMPACT IS POSSIBLE ** -------- MAJOR ENERGETIC EVENT SUMMARY A large major X-class flare ripped out of Region 6555 late today. The event began at 22:42 UT, peaked at 22:47 UT and ended at 23:10 UT on 22 March. The flare attained an intense class X9.4/3B rating and was located at a S26E28. Radio emissions were very strong in the 245 MHz and 10 cm bands. The 245 MHz emission hit 260,000 s.f.u.. The 10 cm burst peaked at 36,000 s.f.u.. Moderate intensity Type II and IV sweeps were observed with this event. The integrated x-ray flux was fairly high, rated at 0.560 Joules per meter^2. A moderate intensity proton event is expected anytime now. A proton enhancement has been observed over the past hour. Solar protons are expected to peak at levels near 80 p.f.u.. A Polar Cap Absorption (PCA) event is expected to begin at anytime. A TOTAL POLAR RADIO SIGNAL BLACKOUT IS EXPECTED ANYTIME. The duration of the blackout is expected to be approximately 24 hours. POTENTIAL TERRESTRIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT Further consultation and analysis will be required before an official terrestrial impact will be released. This terrestrial impact forecast will be issued after 17:00 UT on 23 March. Preliminary results suggest that a high probability exists for a MAJOR middle-latitude geomagnetic storm, beginning sometime on 24 March. A more specific time period will be given with the 24 March bulletin (or warning). This major flare was significant and has the potential of producing large terrestrial impacts. More detailed information regarding the predicted state of the geomagnetic field will be given later today. Region 6555 has been magnetically analyzed in greater detail now. This region sports a beta-gamma-delta magnetic configuration. The internal structure is associated with strong fields, high gradients and high shear. The spots are contorted in an unstable configuration which will most likely produce further major flaring. A POTENTIAL PROTON FLARE WARNING HAS BEEN ISSUED, AS HAS A PROTON FLARE ALERT associated with this latest major event. A POLAR RADIO BLACKOUT WARNING IS IN PROGRESS. A POTENTIAL PCA ACTIVITY WARNING IS IN PROGRESS. The POTENTIAL SATELLITE PROTON EVENT WARNING CONTINUES. A magnetic storm warning will likely be issued later this UT day. ** End of Alert ** ------------------------------ Date: 9 Mar 91 05:53:55 GMT From: snorkelwacker.mit.edu!spool.mu.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!peregrine!ccicpg!felix!dhw68k!ofa123!Wales.Larrison@apple.com (Wales Larrison) Subject: Commercial Space news (1 of 4) This is the fourth in an irregular series on news from the commercial space business. The commentaries are my own thoughts on these developments. Posted in four messages (My apologies - message length restrictions at my up-load point). Contents - 1- SPACEHAB COMPLETES FINANCING FOR VENTURE 2- OSC TO SELL OCEAN REMOTE SENSING DATA TO NASA 3- OSC WINS CONTRACT FOR EXPLORER SATELLITE LAUNCH SERVICES 4- AMROC LOOKING FOR COMMERCIAL PARTNER FOR BOOSTER DEVELOPMENT Articles - ----------------------------------------------------------------- SPACEHAB COMPLETES FINANCING FOR VENTURE Spacehab Inc, signed the final set of financing arrangements for their venture on the 6th of March, signing for a 5-year, $64 M loan agreement with Chase Manhattan Bank. Spacehab is under a $184 M contract with NASA to provide a module under commercial contract to be carried in the Shuttle's payload bay to provide additional space for middeck lockers and the experiments contained in them. NASA has reserved the use of 2/3 of the locker space, and Spacehab must find customers to fill the other 1/3. This was the final round of financing needed to get their venture fully under way. Spacehab mow has all the financing signed up to produce, test, and integrate their middeck augmentation module for a late 1992 launch on the Space Shuttle. Besides the loan from Chase, there is also more than $40 M in equity investments from their industrial partners and subordinated debts, as well as a $50M bond issue from the State of Florida to provide low-cost financing for their production facility in Florida. [Commentary: At last! Spacehab has been trying to get the final parts of its financing package signed off. As I've reported in past postings, they had run into problems from the current financial climate, and as their primary banker had backed away from the deal. Fortunately, NASA was willing to sign up for a long-term contract to them with advanced progress payments so they could pay for their operations as they go, and Florida floated a state-supported bond issue for their manufacturing facility which further reduced their need for financing. This has been a classic case for commercial space - showing how an idea that started with a couple of space enthusiasts in Seattle can eventually grow to become a real program with real money behind it. This has included financial considerations, appropriate design and development work under venture money, signing long-term contracts with primary customers, going from small-scale to large scale venture financing, risk management, and good response to changing market and financial conditions. Now, if they can make sure they get enough customers signed up to ensure they turn a profit on use of their modules, and get the modules built on time and on schedule ...] -- Wales Larrison Internet: Wales.Larrison@ofa123.fidonet.org Compuserve: >internet:Wales.Larrison@ofa123.fidonet.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: 23 Mar 91 14:25:53 GMT From: prism!mailer.cc.fsu.edu!geomag!cain@gatech.edu (Joe Cain) Subject: Re: MAJOR SOLAR FLARE ALERT (weather reactions?) We are now getting much information on predicting solar proton events, magnetic storms, etc. This is of course of value to many who have operational real time need for such data. However, from a subjective point of view I frequently hear people saying "the weather is sure weird" or there "have been major changes in the patterns which will begin to reverse the drought in California and maybe dry out the midwest." The fact that we had a "25 year" rainfall (12" over a couple of days) here in Tallahassee in January brings these questions to mind. At least a couple of decades ago Walt Roberts, who was instrumental in setting up NCAR and UCAR, collaborated on a number of papers showing that there were good correlations between magnetic storms recorded in Alaska with the intensification of cyclonic cells hitting the northwestern US. Further work showed that there were specific responses in the rainfall in small areas like North Dakota. Meteorologists have tended to pooh pooh such correlations saying that the energy involved could not possibly be important in triggering changes in the lower 10 km of atmosphere. The old "tail wagging dog" cliche is dragged out. This is reminiscent of Alfred Wegner's problem in convincing geologists even up to 1950 that maybe South America did indeed split from Africa. He was unable to come up with any proof so a good idea stagnated for several decades while the geologists kept looking under their dimly lit lamposts. With the increase of data from satellites and the supposed interest in global climate changes, has there been any recent action on trying to see what relations might now be found? The last time I spoke with someone at NASA headquarters about such thoughts their eyes glazed over pretty quickly. Joseph Cain cain@geomag.gly.fsu.edu cain@fsu.bitnet scri::cain ------------------------------ Date: 25 Mar 91 01:23:27 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Magellan Images =================== MAGELLAN IMAGES March 24, 1991 =================== I've placed five more Magellan images in VICAR format and 18 in GIF format at the Ames SPACE archives, bringing the Magellan total to 19 VICAR images and 46 GIF images. All of the images are obtainable via anonymous ftp from ames.arc.nasa.gov (128.102.18.3), and are in the pub/SPACE/VICAR and pub/SPACE/GIF directories, respectively. All of the Magellan images I've uploaded to Ames are public release images from the Magellan project, and are in the public domain and can be freely distributed. The five new VICAR files and their sizes are: alpha.img 1,049,600 bytes lavin.img 1,049,600 bytes ovdac.img 1,574,400 bytes ovdan.img 3,147,776 bytes tick.img 2,347,458 bytes All of the VICAR images have a corresponding caption files (with a .txt extension) which contains detailed descriptions of the image. Make sure you are in binary mode when transferring the image files, and in ASCII mode when transferring the text files. The new caption files are appended to the end of this message. The VICAR images can be viewed on an IBM PC computer with the IMDISP program stored in a zip file called imdisp56.zip, located in the pub/SPACE/SOFTWARE directory. I am one of the programmers for IMDISP, and would welcome any feedback on the program. The VICAR format is used by the Image Processing Lab (MIPL) at JPL. Most of the VICAR images are in 1024x1024 pixel resolution and are about 1MB in size. I've converted all of the Magellan VICAR images into GIF format in 640x480, 256 color resolution. The new GIF files are: alpha.gif ovdac.gif alpha1.gif ovdac1.gif alpha2.gif ovdac2.gif alpha3.gif ovdac3.gif lavina.gif ovdan.gif lavina1.gif ovdan1.gif lavina2.gif ovdan2.gif tick.gif ovdan3.gif tick1.gif tick2.gif ============================================================================ ALPHA.TXT Thirty-six orbits of full-resolution data from the northern edge of central Alpha Regio are shown in this image. The image width is about 600 kilometers (375 miles). The bright lineated terrain is a series of troughs, ridges, and faults that are oriented in many directions. The lengths of these features generally range from 10 kilometers (6.3 miles) to 50 kilometers (31.3 miles). The topographic elevation within Alpha Regio varies over a range of 4 kilometers (2.5 miles). Local topographic lows, whose outlines are generally controlled by structures within the central region, are relatively radar-dark and filled with volcanic lavas. Source vents for this volcanism appear as bright spots within the smooth plains units. A distinct example of late-stage deformation of Alpha is the narrow band of southwest-northeast trending faults that disrupt older terrain between -20 degrees and -22 degrees latitude. Another interesting feature is the 35 kilometers (21.9 miles) diameter volcanic edifice located at the upper right of the image. The center of the volcano is a local topographic low and its western edge appears to be breached. ============================================================================ LAVIN.TXT This Magellan image mosiac located in the Lavinia region shows the crater Carson, a 38 km (23 mile) diameter crater. The image is centered at about 24 degrees south latitude, 344 degrees longitude. Impact craters in the Magellan data are frequently surrounded by radar-dark halos. Several of these halos were noted to have a hyperbolic shape, extending hundreds of kilometers to the west of the craters. Five of these dark halos were also seen extending out from craters in Magellan emissivity data. Magellan emissivity data, derived from the altimeter data, provides information about the porosity (soil versus solid rock) and the composition of the surface. The darkness in the emissivity data indicates a very smooth surface, leading to the interpretation that these halos may be thick, smooth sediment deposits formed by the 'crushing' blow of the atmosphere associated with the incoming projectile that formed the impact crater. But why are only about 5% of the craters surrounded by these halos? On the surface of most planets, the population of impact craters can be used to obtain both relative and absolute surface ages. On Venus, as on Earth, there are relatively few craters, making relative age dating (comparing one region of the planet to another) statistically difficult. The number of craters on Venus indicates that the surface may be only about 400 million years old. The dark halos may indicate the very youngest craters on the planet- where the harsh conditions on Venus have not yet caused these dark halos to 'roughen up' and disappear. The halos could possibly be used as 'geologic clocks.' Volcanic flows or tectonic structures cutting one of these halos are interpreted to have occurred even more recently than the craters. This image shows such a situation, where flows associated with the crater cut across the halo, indicating a very young age. Scientists are continuing to identify these halos in the Magellan data, and use them to understand the geologic evolution of the surface. ============================================================================ OVDAC.TXT This Magellan image shows part the interior of Ovda Regio, one of the large highlands ringing the equator of Venus. Several tectonic events formed this complex block-fractured terrain. An underlying fabric of ridges and valleys strikes NE-SW. These ridges are spaced 10-20 kilometers (6-12 miles) apart and may have been caused by shortening of the crust at right angles to this trend. These structures are cut by throughgoing extension fractures trending NW-SE, suggesting a later episode of NE-SW extension. Lastly, the largest valleys, particularly the 20 kilometer (12 mile)-wide one extending across the image, were filled with dark material, probably lava. The complex internal fabric of Ovda Regio attests to a long history of tectonic deformation. This image, centered approximately at 1 S 81 E, measures 225 kilometers (140 miles) by 150 kilometers (90 miles) and was acquired by Magellan in November 1990. ============================================================================ OVDAN.TXT This Magellan image shows part of the northern boundary of Ovda Regio, one of the large highlands ringing the equator of Venus. The scene consists largely of low-relief, rounded linear ridges. These ridges, 8-15 kilometers (5-9 miles) in width and 30-60 kilometers (20-40 miles) long, lie mostly along a 100-200 kilometer (60-120 mile) wide slope where the elevation drops 3 kilometers (2 miles) from Ovda Regio to the surrounding plains. Some of the ridges have been cut at right angles by extension fractures. Dark material, either lava or windblown dirt, fills the region between the ridges. The curvilinear, banded nature of these ridges suggests that crustal shortening, roughly oriented north-south, is largely responsible for their formation. Such crustal shortening was unexpected by Magellan scientists, who believed that Ovda Regio, a likely site of hot upwelling from the interior of Venus, should be dominated by volcanism and crustal extension. This image, centered approximately at 1 N 81 E, measures 300 kilometers (190 miles) by 225 kilometers (140 miles) and was acquired by Magellan in November 1990. ============================================================================ TICK.TXT This Magellan image is located in the Eistla Region of Venus in the southern hemisphere and is centered at 5.5 degrees east longitude, 18 degrees south latitude. It is 122.8 kilometers (76.1 miles) across east-west and 107.5 kilometers (66.6 miles) across north-south. North is oriented towards the top of the image. Shown in the image is an unusual volcanic edifice unlike all others previously observed. It is approximately 65.6 kilometers (40.7 miles) across at the base and has a relatively flat, slightly concave summit 34.8 kilometers (21.6 miles) in diameter. The sides of the edifice are characterized by radiating ridges and valleys that impart a fluted appearance to the construct. To the west, the rim of the edifice appears to have been breached by dark lava flows that emanated from a shallow summit pit approximately 5.4 kilometers (3.3 miles) in diameter and traveled west along a channel approximately 5.4 kilometers (3.3 miles) wide and 26.8 kilometers (16.6 miles) long. A series of coalescing, collapsed pits 2-10 kilometers (1.2-6.2 miles) in diameter are located 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) west of the summit rim. The edifice and western pits are circumscribed by faint, concentric lineaments up to 70.3 kilometers (43.6 miles) in diameter. A series of north-northwest-trending graben are deflected eastwards around the edifice; the interplay of these graben and the fluted rim of the edifice produce a distinctive scalloped pattern in the image. Several north-northwest-trending lineaments cut directly across the summit region. This peculiar volcanic construct is located 25-30 kilometers (15.5-18.6 miles) north of Alpha Regio, a highly deformed region of tessera terrain. A collection of at least 6 similar volcanoes has been observed near Thetis Regio, a region of tessera within Aphrodite Terra. Thus, these unusual constructs tentatively appear to be spatially associated with regions of tessera. The implications of this spatial association on the unusual morphology of these constructs are being investigated. ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov | | | | __ \ /| | | | Jet Propulsion Lab | ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |___ M/S 301-355 | Change is constant. /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ | ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V13 #319 *******************