FOIA: Defense Technical Intelligence Report for the 22 Sep 1979 Vela Satellite event

DEFENSE_TECHNICAL_ INTELLIGENCE_REPORT_JUNE_26_1980.pdf
Defense Technical Intelligence Report for the 22 Sep 1979 Vela Satellite event
Defense Technical Intelligence Report for the 22 Sep 1979 Vela Satellite event, also called the South Atlantic Mystery Flash.
Document date: 1980-06-26
Department: Defense Intelligence Agency
Author: Dr. John E. Mansfield, Lt.Col. Houston T. Hawkins USAF
Document type: report
pages: 54


Archivist's Notes: Fair to good quality document. Many blacked out sections and blank pages. 'Secret' classification crossed out. A technical report.

Technical Intelligence Report June 26 1980.

This 54 page document has many whole pages blanked out.
(More than once in the article the pages are doubled up ie copied twice).

What is left appears to be the more mathematically detailed
version of the information contained in the AD HOC Panel’s report.

Interesting that this depth of information is dated after the AD HOC Panel’s
finished their work.
According to the Scientific Panel, Pioneer 10 (another satellite)
didn’t have relevant information about the light source.
This was confirmed in this report.
Some new information is a discussion about the possibility that A-747 was a micrometeoroid flux is discussed in detail from Page 42 onwards but draws the conclusion the chance is 1 per 1.000,000,000,000 years.

Some charts appear regarding the weights of known meteoroids and cumulative flux from the 60’s – 70’s.

The last page is headed: ‘The Case Against the Zoo’…but it is blank.

This Defense Technical Intelligence Report pertains to the A-747 Vela Incident, in which the Vela Satellite detected a suspected atmospheric nuclear detonation in the Indian Ocean, south of Africa, on September 22, 1979.

There are only two surviving sections in this document. One section starting on page 33 contains information on a Traveling Ionospheric Disturbance or TID, which was reported by Aricebo Observatory, and this report gave only a probability of 0.02 that it was what triggered the event.

The other section was called The Case Against Micrometeoroid starting on page 42, compares the Vela satellite data to a similar event, which occurred on Pioneer 10, and how the data differs from it. It argues that light flashes from micrometeoroids only last for a much shorter time than a nuclear explosion. The conclusion also gave a very low chance of a micrometeoroid being the cause of the event.

There is not much else remaining in the report, but just from looking at the index, you get the idea that it was written in support of a nuclear explosion.

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