Aug 18 1975
From The Space Library
18-20 August: A workshop on "Operational Applications of Satellite Snowcover Observations" was held at Lake Tahoe, Nev., to discuss recent progress in extracting meaningful Snowcover information from satellites. Albert Rango, Goddard Space Flight Center scientist, reported that, with the cooperation of nine Federal and state agencies, NASA had developed an applications systems verification test (ASVT)-using data from satellites and instrumented aircraft, conventional ground information, and prediction models-to quantitatively determine the usefulness of remote-sensing technology in an operational applications system.
In another paper Rango reported that low-resolution meteorological satellite data and high-resolution earth-resources satellite data had been used to map a snow-covered area over Wyoming mountains. Predictions based on satellite data of the April through June 1972 streamflow were within 3% of the actual total. Also, composite results from 2 yr of data over the mountains indicated that Landsat Snowcover observations could be useful in predicting runoff and seasonal streamflow.
James C. Barnes of Environmental Research and Technology, Inc., reported that the earth resources experiment package (EREP) flown aboard the 1973-74 Skylab Orbital Workshop missions had provided the first opportunity to examine reflectance characteristics of snowcover in several spectral bands from the visible to the near infrared. Results indicated that near-infrared methods could distinguish between snow and water droplet clouds and could detect areas of melting snow. (NASA Hq WB, 28 Feb 76, 2; NASA SP-391, text)
18-21 August: Evidence of a 10th planet existing in earth's solar system 16 million yrs ago was presented at the 146th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in San Diego by Dr. Thomas C. Van Flandern, U.S. Naval Observatory astronomer. Studying the orbits of 60 long-period comets, including 1974's Kohoutek, Dr. Van Flandern had concluded they had shared a common origin 16 million yr ago.
The evidence was consistent with calculations made in 1971 by Canadian astronomer Dr. Michael W. Ovenden. Dr. Ovenden's studies of irregularities in the orbits of planets, especially Uranus and Neptune, suggested that a major disruptive event had occurred in the solar system approximately 16 million yrs ago. He had arrived at this time by age-dating carbon-bearing meteorites that had fallen to earth, and theorized that the event could be explained by the explosion of a huge planet 90 times the size of earth.
During the meeting Dr. Stuart Bowyer, Univ. of Calif. astronomer, surprised the 740 astronomers attending the meeting by reporting that a Univ. of Calif. telescope flown aboard the Apollo spacecraft during the joint U.S.-U.S.S.R. Apollo-Soyuz Test Project [see 15-26 July] had picked up the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation of a star. EUV, a small segment of the spectrum between normal ultraviolet and x-rays, had been considered by astronomers as practically invisible because of probable absorption by interstellar dust and gas. Dr. Bowyer said that the EUV had come from a white dwarf star 300 light yrs away in the constellation Coma Berenices. (NASA Gen Mgmt Review Rpt, 18 Aug 75, 9; Alexander, LA Times, 26 Aug 75)
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