Los Alamos Flying laboratory visits to NZ for Auroral Study

[Dave Homewood]

Aurora Hunting By Air

Twenty-five American geophysical scientists climbed into a military Boeing transport at Christchurch airport on Sunday and last evening to go aurora hunting halfway between New Zealand and the Antarctic.

On each of the nights the men have spent five hours of intensive scientific research in their well-equipped flying laboratory. The Boeing has operated at 30.000 ft about 1200 miles south of the Dominion.

Dr. H. C. Reynolds, the scientific leader of the research mission, said in Christchurch yesterday that the scientists were all representatives of the Atomic Energy Commission drawn from various laboratories in the United States under contract to the A.E.C. The research mission would last for about a month, said Dr. Reynolds. Missions using the specially equipped aircraft were held once or twice a year. For the rest of the year the scientists analysed the data collected from the flights. The visit to New Zealand, which would end on Friday, was primarily to study aurora. Another aircraft, similarly equipped, was doing identical work on auroral studies at Anchorage, Alaska.

So far the scientists have seen one aurora. In flight the scientists conduct cosmic ray and airglow experiments. Dr. Reynolds said it was hoped to shed light on the cause of the aurora. “We would like to know if the auroral phenomena in the Northern Hemisphere are identical to those observed in the south and if not, why not?

“Our cosmic ray experiments are to measure the earth’s magnetic fields. In addition we make a number of radio frequency experiments to see if the ‘dawn chorus’ and ‘whistlers’ connected with the auroral phenomena are similar in each hemisphere,” he said.

Dr. Reynolds said the two Boeings left together from Hawaii. “We flew south to the equator together, then our plane went on to American Samoa and the other plane flew back to Hawaii. We then came to Christchurch and the sister plane went to Anchorage.”

He said the Boeings were used by the A.E.C. for a number of geophysical experiments. Last northern autumn one was flown to South America to observe the eclipse of the sun. Cosmic ray research flights were made over Canada and the United States.

The Boeing would leave Christchurch on Friday for Guam from where it would fly westward around the globe across Africa and South America. There would be an exchange of scientists at Guam because of the changing character of future experiments, said Dr. Reynolds. The sister aircraft in Alaska would at the end of the research mission, fly back to Hawaii and then return to the United States.

Yesterday staff and science graduates from the University of Canterbury and representatives from the Geophysical Laboratory, and the Magnetic Survey in Christchurch, and the Atomic Energy Commission and the Nuclear Institute from Wellington, were shown over the Boeing and its cabins full of complex electronic equipment. About 30 were in the party.


PRESS, 15 MARCH 1967

[Dave Homewood]

Scientific Night Flights

Thirty-nine American scientists aboard a specially equipped military aircraft will next week make a number of night flights from Christchurch as far south as the sub-Antarctic Balleny Islands to study cosmic rays and airglow phenomena. The United States Air Force Boeing, due at Christchurch today, comes from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Lieutenant-Colonel N. Garland is the military commander of the mission, and Dr N. Glass, of the Los Angeles Scientific Laboratory, the scientific leader. The 39 scientists are drawn from four laboratories and nearly all of them are studying aspects of radiation.

Mr B. C. Lyon, the operations officer, said in Christchurch yesterday that a similar research project was conducted from Christchurch about the same time last year and valuable data was collected. The Boeing would be flown for seven to eight hours each night the weather was favourable. Its mission would call for precision flying because it would be working with a similar Boeing, staffed by scientists, from Anchorage, Alaska. At times communication would be made by way of a satellite.

“We shall attempt to measure simultaneously auroral activity and its effect on the earth’s magnetic field at conjugate points in the northern and southern hemispheres,” said Mr Lyon. The research was done at this time of the year when there were equal periods of darkness at either end of the world. Mr Lyon said scientists were still working on some of the data that was collected in last year’s flights from Anchorage and Christchurch. Mr Lyon said the work would be of assistance in future space research and it also had some bearing on the effect of sunspot activity on communication systems. The scientists will be in Christchurch from today until April 2.

PRESS, 22 MARCH 1968

[Dave Homewood]

Flying laboratory on third visit to Chch

The Boeing 707 converted into a $12m flying laboratory which visited Christchurch in 1967 and 1968 is due on Saturday for a third series of flights related to auroral, airglow, cosmic rays and conjugate point research.

The Boeing; a specially equipped military version, belongs to the United States Atomic Energy Commission but is flown and maintained by the U.S.A.F. On board it will be a team of 26 scientists and technicians from the Los Alamos, New Mexico, scientific laboratory. The scientific commander is Dr R. W. Peterson.

From Christchurch, and probably beginning on Sunday night, the jet will make five flights to a point about 1200 miles south-east of New Zealand. On the flights south the aircraft will remain at an altitude of 33,000 ft; on the way back it will fly at 37,000 ft. At the same time a sister Boeing will be flying on similar missions north from Anchorage, Alaska, keeping to the same time, speed and altitude. The two aircraft will maintain radio contact by satellite. In 1968 this satellite contact did not fully succeed because of a fault in the equipment on the aircraft.

Just in case of a break-down this time arrangements have been made for men on the ground at Anchorage and in Christchurch, both in communication with their respective flights, to speak to each other by telephone. The flights are expected to take place on alternate nights but this will depend on weather and the level of magnetic activity.

The flights might take place on consecutive nights. It is expected that two members of the Geophysical Observatory of the Department of Industrial and Scientific Research in Christchurch will take part in these research flights. Information collected from the present mission is expected to add to scientific knowledge in such specific areas as the structure of the upper atmosphere, electric field producing mechanisms, and geomagnetic field configurations.

PRESS, 22 OCTOBER 1970

[Dave Homewood]

Auroral study succeeds

Although the total mission was successful, scientists would have preferred higher auroral activity, said Dr J. Wolcott, discussing the five-flight scientific mission 1200 miles south of New Zealand to do auroral, airglow and cosmic ray research. In Christchurch yesterday, before the 38 scientists left in their specially equipped $12m Boeing for the United States, Dr Wolcott said that the auroral studies were probably the least successful of the mission. The scientists are from the! Los Alamos scientific laboratory of the University of California and it was their third such mission from Christchurch.

All the five flights went well although communication by satellite with another 707: flying from Anchorage, Alaska, while both were in the air, was not as good as expected and reliance had to be placed on the telephone between Anchorage and Christchurch. It was possible that a fourth visit would be made to Christchurch by the “flying laboratory,” said Dr Wolcott who quickly added that it was all a matter of the availability of funds which were getting harder to obtain all the time. On the present mission auroral activity was low. “What we need is more information about high auroral activity and this leads me to believe that some time in the future we will be coming back,” he said.

It was reported that the Boeing on the northern mission also experienced low auroral activity, he said. On board the two aircraft were nine cameras as well as a computer yet photographs taken of the auroral area did not take in as wide a range as was hoped for. Dr Wolcott said the scientific benefits of the mission would not really be known until results on both aircraft had been checked and analysed.

PRESS, 6 NOVEMBER 1970

[Dave Homewood]

Research flights

A fourth series of flights for auroral, air glow, cosmic ray and conjugate point research will be made later this month by a Boeing 707 flying laboratory which visited Christchurch in 1967, 1968, and last October.

The Boeing, a specially equipped military version, from the laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, is due at Christchurch on September 12. It is likely to have more than 20 scientists and technicians aboard.

During its week in Christchurch the Boeing is expected to make flights almost to the rim of the Antarctic continent at altitudes of between 33,000 ft and 37,000 ft. At the same time another Boeing will fly on similar missions north of Anchorage, Alaska, keeping to the same time, speed and altitude.

Information collected from these flights is expected to add to scientific knowledge of the structure of the upper atmosphere, electric field producing magnetisms . and geomagnetic field configurations.


PRESS, 2 SEPTEMBER 1971

[Dave Homewood]

Study of re-entry to atmosphere

Four night flights will be made out of Christchurch in the next few days by a military version of the Boeing 707 to test experimental optical measuring equipment used to study the re-entry into the atmosphere of such items as space vehicles, satellites and missiles.

Mr E. Cotton, leader of the group doing the research—the Lincoln Laboratory of the Massachussetts Institute of Technology—said in Christchurch yesterday that the study was of re-entry physics. Christchurch was selected as a base for operations because the late winter stratosphere was lower at this latitude than it would be neat the home base of the aircraft, which is Honolulu. - He said that the research was being done for the United States Air Force.

It will not be a continuous study series such as that of the auroral conjugate point research which will be undertaken with a similar type of aircraft from Christchurch later in the month which is coming here for a fourth visit. This particular research is being carried out by the Los Alamos, New Mexico, Scientific Laboratory. Mr Cotton said that the Boeing was based at Honolulu where the Massachussetts Institute of Technology had a field site. He said that the team of civilian scientists in the aircraft hoped to get sufficient data on the performance of the optical measuring equipment from the one series of night flights from which some definite conclusions could be drawn.

For the sake of the experiments, bright stars and planets will be used as objects there being no objects due to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere in this part of the world at present. The last mission involving a study of the atmospheric re-entry of space objects in which the team and its aircraft was involved was in observations made in the Pacific last month when Apollo 15 returned from its moon mission.

Yachting. The successful British team in the Admiral’s Cup championship la likely to be sent to Sydney tor the Southam Cross series in December, R. Mundle. the yachting correspondent of the national dally the “Australian” reported from London.

PRESS, 3 SEPTEMBER 1971