(meteorobs) Military Hush-Up: Incoming Space RocksNow Classified

[Chris Peterson]

The DoD has never been consistent about releasing data from their monitoring 
satellites. AFAIK there has never been a formal policy (at least, not a 
public one) defining when such information can be released.

Presumably, there is some concern that by releasing this information about 
fireballs, they are revealing some of the capabilities of the system 
(designed for monitoring rocket launches and nuclear explosions). But the 
meteor data I've seen has always been for large fireballs, where there is no 
issue of compromising details on the system capabilities. All they need to 
do (and what I assume they did in the past) is to set a lower limit on the 
size of the event to avoid revealing the limiting sensitivity of their 
instruments.

While the loss of this data is unfortunate, I don't think it is all that 
serious. As I said, its availability has always been sporadic at best, and 
ground monitoring is getting better and more widespread. The irony is that 
military organizations have used data from my meteor monitoring network, and 
continue to use my work in setting up their own ground based camera 
networks. Maybe I should classify my results? <g>

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Larry" <ycsentinel at att.net>
To: <marco.langbroek at wanadoo.nl>; "Global Meteor Observing Forum" 
<meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 1:19 AM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Military Hush-Up: Incoming Space RocksNow 
Classified


> Hi Marco.
>
> If what you say is true, then it would appear that the compromise in
> security might be in the minimal detection of energy and/or the bandpass
> wavelengths etc. I worked (lab tested) such a tactical satellite 53 years
> ago for my comparison here.
>
> But without clarification of the original statement.... " A recent U.S.
> military policy decision now explicitly states that observations by
> hush-hush government spacecraft of incoming bolides and fireballs are
> classified secret and are not to be released, SPACE.com has learned.".....
> there could be more to it than just unintended profiling some of the
> capabilities of a classified device.
>
> I took it verbatum to mean bolides and fireballs, and thought it might be
> considered sensitive information on a need to know basis. (i.e., 
> information
> screening for public safety.)
>
> Larry
> YCSentinel